jlfetting 100 books in 2018

Ok. This year really for real I am going to read 100 books. I'm not going to plan too much, but I'd like to keep the ratio at

1) 20% nonfiction
2) 25% books off my shelf
3) 25% 1001 books

One of my New Year's resolutions is to (gasp) NOT BUY ANY BOOKS. Hopefully this will help with working through the TBR pile.

Thanks for setting up this group! I went to the group I created and posted a note for everyone to join this group instead.

I made a resolution not to buy any books this year until I've finished my hundreds and hundreds already in TBR piles. Of course, I made this resolution a couple days before year's end, right as I was buying a half dozen or so books in a used bookstore I frequent, so I doubt this resolution is going to last very long.

Hi Jennifer.

Happy New Year to you. Thank you very much for setting the group up. I am looking forward to following your reading - you alwys seem to choose such a diverse range of books.

With best wishes,

James

Thanks for setting up the group :) I'm impressed with your resolution to not buy more books, too, and wish you luck... much as I should try it, myself, I'd be setting myself up to fail!

>1 jfetting: I am impressed with your resolution not to buy any books during the year, Jennifer.

I don't think I could stick to that, but my wife and I have agreed, after years of promising each other we would cut down the number of books we buy, but to no avail, that we will operate a ‘one in, one out’ regime. For every new book we acquire we will give one from our already overburdened shelves to the education programme in one of London’s prisons.

I work in the Ministry of Justice for whom a recently-commissioned report suggested that more than half the current population of prisoners have a reading age of 11 or lower. There are several programmes working to help educate prisoners, as this has proven benefits towards reducing reoffending rates, but those programmes are woefully short of good books.

I have a couple of financial goals for this year that will require a bit of sacrifice to achieve. New books are among the things I am giving up, but honestly with the library and the number of unread books on my shelves, I'll be ok (also plan to reward myself extravagantly in 2019 if I keep to the resolution).

>5 Eyejaybee: that sounds like a wonderful program! I wonder if there is anything similar in the States...

#1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling ***** (re-read)

And the first read of the year is a visit with a favorite. I still cry reading the last couple of chapters.

>6 jfetting: I'm trying to cut back on spending as well (we're doing a major kitchen and flooring renovation) and I don't think I'll buy any books except for the $1 ones at the library sale twice a year. Like you, I have plenty of books on my shelves and use the library for new books most of the time anyway. It's still hard though!

Going cold turkey with the book buying! Enjoy making your 2019 list.

>7 japaul22: it is hard. I'm only 4 days into it and it is already hard. But hopefully effective. I'm also giving up new clothes and new shoes and trips that involve plane tickets and hotels (that weren't already booked and paid for in 2018).

#2 Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit **** (nonfiction #1)

Well. I'd read the title essay before (it's pretty widely shared around the progressive social media world), about a time when a white dude held forth to her on a book that SHE HAD WRITTEN as if he were an expert, and it took awhile for him to hear her when she told him she wrote the book (turns out he hadn't even read it). It's clever, and not at all surprising to (probably) most women. I think that most of us have experienced something similar.

The rest of the essays were also about feminism - the obligatory Virginia Woolf essay, a horrific essay with lots of statistics about violence against women and girls, and others about the way in which our society minimizes and silences women and their contributions. It is a depressing read, but important. The only issue is that I think it is one of those books that 95% of the people who read it are already aware of these issues. Like, the type of guy who would find himself lecturing a woman on a subject about which she is already very familiar is NOT going to pick up this book (and instead probably lecture some other poor woman on how "not all men" behave this way, assuming that he is one of the men who doesn't).

#2 sounds good Jen, you might be interested in our own Clementine Ford's Fight Like a Girl, addressing similar issues.

>11 bryanoz: That one does sound good - thanks!

>10 jfetting: That sounds interesting. Mary Beard's Women and Power covers similar ground and considers how much of the language used in the media serves to exclude women from serious considerationd in public debate.

>10 jfetting: I read that last year, Jen, and went out and bought a copy for my 16 year old great-niece for her birthday!

>13 Eyejaybee: Another one for the wishlist - I'm reading her SPQR right now and I love her style.

>14 ronincats: That is a good age for this - it needs to start young.

Looking forward to following your reading again! I started the year with a favorite too, and I do need to get to Men Explain Things to Me.

Happy new year! Happy new year of reading. As always, I enjoy your insights. Good luck to 100.

#3 Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist ****

I loved the movie, I loved the book. It may be my favorite vampire story ever.

#4 SPQR by Mary Beard ****.5 (nonfiction #2)

This was great. Roman history is one of those things I've always thought I already knew, between school and biographies and tragically short-lived HBO television series, but I was wrong. In this book that Beard herself describes as a "conversation" (it's a fitting descriptor), we learn much more about the relationship between the classes, and what is known or guessed at of the pre-Republic era of Roman history (Romulus probably wasn't real, apparently), and what we can guess from garbage heaps, etc., about the lives of the non-elite of Rome. It's fascinating; Beard is a great writer.

>19 jfetting: I like the sound of this book and will certainly seek it out. I think that Mary Beard is marvellous and has a great ability to convey complex ideas with great clarity and accessibility.

#5 Winter by Ali Smith ****.5

The follow-up novel to her Autumn from last year. It is very similar - beautiful writing, characters that draw you in (eventually - took me a bit to warm to this cast), story that keeps you reading and reading and reading, while completely lacking any semblance of a real plot. I loved it. I wonder if it'll stand the test of time, with all its references to current events, but for now it is perfect.

#6 The Arabian Nights by Anonymous (translated by Richard Burton) **** (1001 book #1)

So this is one of the oldest books on the list, and it is one of those books like Shakespeare or the Bible that has heavily influenced storytelling for at least a couple of centuries. "Open Sesame!", Aladdin and his Genie (any book at all that contains a Jinn), Sinbad and his sea voyages... these are stories we've all known since we were little.

Well, parts of them, anyway. Turns out that the stories are a lot more violent (shocker) and risque (so much banging! Seriously, lots of sex in here) than the stories we heard as kids. The book as a whole is a bit much to take in over the month the library let me keep it; better to own a copy and read it slowly over time. Also, fair warning - this is a product of its time (ie, the centuries that these stories were told), so it can be super racist in parts. Hilarious in a horrifying way that some stereotypes have been around almost forever.

If you read the Burton translation (and I don't see why you shouldn't - it is pretty approachable), READ THE FOOTNOTES. Some of them are boring, some are racist, some are hilarious (he rants about stupid hats, he talks about measuring male genitalia, etc.). Skip the ones you don't like and savor the good ones.

#7 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby **** (nonfiction #3)

This collection of essays is hilarious - I laughed out loud quite often. Some of them are sad, too; Irby lost her parents in her first year of college (they don't sound like fantastic parents tbh), and grew up poor in Evanston, IL, which I cannot imagine is an easy place to grow up poor (Evanston is the home of my alma mater, Northwestern University, and there are a LOT of rich people on the north shore). Irby reminds me a lot of Roxane Gay in that they are both black women essayists who started out in romantic relationships with men and ended up in romantic relationships with women. Irby is funnier but less talented - after reading Difficult Women I wanted to read every single word Gay wrote; after reading this book I'm trying to figure out if I know anyone who does know Irby in real life (she's only 2 years younger than me and I know people who went to her high school when she went to her high school).

A LOT of the humor in it for me comes from all the little Chicago references (Alinea, Jewel it's a grocery store, $17 rooftop bar cocktails, the joy of dating a man who actually has his shit sufficiently together to have a membership to the Art Institute). Also her neighborhood is the one just north of mine; her casual throwaway references to places are to places that I know. It's fun.

#8 The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson *** (nonfiction #4)

I though it was going to be funnier. Basic Buddhism-inspired self-help book with lots of swear words.

#9 Zone One by Colson Whitehead *****

I saw Whitehead speak this fall (mostly about The Underground Railroad), and he mentioned a couple of his earlier books, including this postapocalyptic zombie novel. It is so good. It is exciting and grim and kind of hopeless, like most of the books I've read in this genre. It is also exceptionally well written, and I love the narrator character Mark Spitz.

Zone One sounds great, thanks Jen !

>26 bryanoz: it's incredible. I liked The Underground Railroad a lot, but I like this one even more.

#10 Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver ***.5

This is a greatest hits collection collated by Oliver herself. I really enjoyed the poems in the first third of the book (had to put it down after the selections from Dog Songs because they all made me ugly cry), but then was less into it as I went along. Could have been because it is in reverse chronological order and maybe I prefer older Oliver to younger Oliver, could have been because it was just too much in a short period of time - all of her poems are about nature and God and death and life and birds and foxes and dogs and the ocean and ponds - and I needed a change. Could have been because it has been a rough week in this city & country and the kind of poetry that celebrates living surrounded by nature and animals and makes very few references to other people seems jarring and almost inappropriate right now. They're very good poems, don't get me wrong, but I didn't love this the way I expected.

#11 The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead ****

So the premise is that in this slightly alternate reality, elevator inspectors are really important, and they fall into 2 camps: intuitionists (who feel the elevators intuitively) and empiricists (who actually go look at the things). Playing into all of this are politics, and race issues, and mysterious safe houses, and all sorts of crazy things. It is great.

Hello, joined late! I also made a resolution not to buy any books and except for giftcards people got me for Christmas to bookstores, I have not. I have just about 600 books between my e-reader and my real bookshelves that I need to whittle down. Good luck to you!

The Intuitionist sounds intriguing! I have never read anything by Colson Whitehead but I did recently purchase The Underground Railroad. If I enjoy it then I think I will have to pick this one up as well. (Zone One as well!)

>29 Tess_W: thanks Tess! Good luck to you too! It is harder than I thought it would be.

>30 iftyzaidi: I might even recommend Zone One if you DON'T like The Underground Railroad. They are pretty different.

Intrigued by Zone One, if zombie anything isn't my preference. I should read something by Whitehead though, and I know I won't be able to enjoy The Underground Railroad (my brain seems to only like the space around magical realism if it involves a house basically being a character).

At a talk he gave this fall, he is apparently working on a police procedural, among other things. I can't wait.

#12 Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami **** (1001 book #2)

Not my favorite Murakami, although still pretty good. Nowhere near as much magical realism as I like. I prefer those - in the more non-magical realism books, Murakami's inability to write realistic women is more jarring.

#13 The Master of Ballentrae by Robert Louis Stevenson *** (1001 book #3)

It's ok. Very similar to the rest of Stevenson's adventure novels, although not quite as much fun as Kidnapped. It is partly set in Scotland during the Jacobite uprising, and partly set in colonial America. Two brothers don't get along; one is a sociopath similar to Mr. Hyde, while the other is a put-upon saint who becomes increasingly nuts over the course of the novel.

#14 The Populist Explosion by John B. Judis *** (nonfiction 5)

Written during the 2016 election, the author mentioned several times that a Trump presidency was unlikely to happen (AND LOOK WHERE WE ARE NOW). This is an interesting look at populism, a political movement that I know very little about (turns out I am not a populist). He covers left-wing (eg, Bernie Sanders) and right-wing (eg, The Current Occupant) populism in the US and in Europe. The European bit was more interesting to me - he went over the history of populist movements in the later part of the 20th century and early 21st century in Europe, which I am unfortunately not really up to speed on (OH MY GOD the French National Front and no wonder everyone was all pissed about Le Pen being invited to CPAP or whatever it was).

The most important message in the book, I think, is that populist movements spring up when the political elite are ignoring real concerns of the people, and they tend to precede major shifts in parties and politics. So hopefully something good will come of this?

The other take home for me is that WOW right-wing populism is really, at its core, about racism and fear/hatred of immigrants (especially black or brown ones). My God.

#14 Sounds like an interesting book and very topical if one is to judge by the Italian election results of yesterday! It also reminds me that I still have Pankaj Mishra's Age of Anger in my tbr pile. I really must get to it soon.

>38 iftyzaidi: Right?!? What is this world coming to?

#15 A Wrinkle in Time, #16 A Wind in the Door, #17 A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle, all rereads many times over, all 5 stars

I read these yet again in anticipation of the movie coming out this weekend (the first one in the lovely Folio Society edition I picked up last summer). I first read and loved them at 10 years of age, and I can't overstate how important these books are to who I am as a person today. There is almost no way that the movie can live up to what these books mean to me, but I'm going to try to consider it a completely different thing.

If you know a little girl who loves science and fiction and fantasy and space and not being talked down to, give her these.

>I quite liked Sputnik Sweetheart but The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is the Murakami I keep recommending to people.

>40 pamelad: I really liked The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, too.

Murakami's 1Q84 is another I recommend

>42 bryanoz: I love that one

#18 God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now by John Dominic Crossan **** (nonfiction #6)

A little Lenten reading. This covers quite a bit of the historical Jesus and how much of the language used to describe Jesus in the Gospels is both radical and treasonous (a lot of the terminology "lord" "son of God" was strictly applied to Augustus at the time, and this was done purposefully. There is a comparison of the different Pauline letters, and which were likely from Paul and which were later ascribed to Paul, which is interesting but not nearly as good as what Crossan and Marcus Borg covered in their book about Paul. Crossan has a great chapter on the symbolism in Revelations and how some of the crazier (my word, not his) modern Christians have co-opted this book as fact/predictions and not the more accurate (in Crossan's opinion, and mine) interpretation of Revelations as metaphor condemning Rome. Crossan points out how actual US foreign policy is being mapped out (in ways) by people who actually freaking believe that Revelations is a road map for the Second Coming, and that is terrifying.

#19 How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn **** (book off my shelf #1)

One on hand, a sweet little nostalgic book about the boyhood of the main character, Huw. I love all of the characters in this book, especially the boxers.

On the other hand, most of the action is about the rise of unions in coal-mining country, and how that works out for them (spoiler: badly).

Also, its almost the middle of March and I FINALLY get around to reading a book off my own shelf? This is why I can't buy new books, people. Shameful.

#20 The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams by Sam Walker **** (nonfiction #7)

This one is on my radar because my new employer has a list of business/leadership books published in 2017 that it recommends to those of us who want to move up the ranks. This one is pretty cool, especially if you like sports - the author develops an algorithm and identifies what he considers to be the 16 most dominant sports teams ever (all kinds of sports! basketball, soccer, Australian football, American football, women's olympic volleyball etc). When he looked at what they all had in common, the only link was that each had a strong and crucial captain that led them to greatness. Walker notes that these leaders aren't necessarily the type of person you think would make a great leader - they aren't flashy, they aren't necessarily the highest scorer (usually the opposite). Instead, they are great motivators and listeners and tend to push the limit of the rules and yet to lead from behind, so that their teammates trust them and respect them. It was really interesting.

#21 Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende **** (book off my shelf #2)

Fun story about a Chilean orphan who is adopted by a wealthy English family, falls in love, heads of to California during the Gold Rush to find said love, adventures ensue. It's really good.

#22 The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver ***.5 (book off my shelf #3)

The premise of this novel is similar to that of the movie Sliding Doors from the 90s. The main character has a moment where she can make a decision that will change her life. In one of the storylines, she decides yes; in the other, she decides no. They're both interesting, and I read this 500 page book in one day (a very lazy day otherwise), and I think overall I enjoyed it. My main problem is that the other people in her life (well, one person, mainly), is a COMPLETELY different person in each storyline and it starts BEFORE she encounters him again after making the decision. That doesn't fit - he should have reacted to her the same until she started acting differently with him. Then he can grow in different directions in the two storylines, not start out as a different person in the two storylines. I don't know. Kind of ruined it for me.

#23 Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion ** (1001 #4)

For some reason this seems like a very familiar book. It is about an actress/model who doesn't seem to feel much about anything, and screws around and starves herself and drinks too much/takes too many drugs and blah blah blah and I don't know. Didn't work for me.

#24 Emotional Agility by Susan David ***** (nonfiction #8)

Another one recommended by my employer. It's only tangentially about the business world, although understanding and accepting one's emotions can only be useful in the business setting. It was a really good self-help type book, and one that I'll probably end up buying in 2019. There was a lot of useful info in there about experiencing negative emotions that really resonated with me.

>45 jfetting: How long is your 2019 list so far?

>46 pamelad: Ha! About 20. It'll get purged over the course of the year, but boy are they adding up.

>44 jfetting: and >45 jfetting: I'm following your leadership reading with interest. The new title I have at work brings with it a management element and has me responsible for doing yearly evaluation for my colleagues that makes me uncomfortable. Right now I'm reading Thinking: Fast and Slow which is really interesting and I've added your recent reads to my list as well.

>48 japaul22: Well you are in luck because I have 2 more that I've just picked up from the library right now: The Power of Positive Leadership and Leaders Eat Last. The next step in my career is a management role, and I'd like to know what I'm doing when I get there because from what I've seen so far, people trained as scientists make terrible managers. Thinking: Fast and Slow looks really interesting; adding it to the list.

I bet you will be a great manager.

#25 True Wealth by Juliet B. Schor ***** (nonfiction #9)

I'm of 3 minds about this book. The first mind is that I completely agree with her about how the current economic system in the US is destroying our climate and our happiness, and I love her solution, which is that everyone should stop spending like crazy on stupid, wasteful, polluting crap and re-learn how to make/do things on one's own. Live more simply and spending less money, and that way everyone could work part time (say 80% of the hours they work now), which would allow more people to have jobs (this was written back in 2010, during the Great Recession). It would also have the benefit of somehow producing more green energy and jobs, and reducing pollution and carbon levels (which are truly unsustainable here in the US). I read her book Plenitude a few years ago, and enjoyed it too.

The second mind is much more disheartened. There is no way this will ever happen. I don't have any faith in this country to do the right thing any more. I wish I did. I wish I could be optimistic.

The third mind is kind of rebelling. I like Things (although I do not like plastic) and I like to travel via airplane to cool places that I've never been and I like to open a bag of baby spinach and add it to my breakfast smoothie in Chicago in March, despite the fact that it isn't locally grown. Good God. Only eat locally sourced/grown food in CHICAGO in the WINTER? What is that exactly? Although she is right! Locally grown is much better.

#26 Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard ** (book off my shelf #4)

I usually like these books that build off of a great work of literature. In this case, we find out what happens to Tiny Tim when he grows up. He lives in a brothel to avoid having to take money from his Uncle Scrooge (called Uncle N here), and it is interesting to see how the Crachits dealt with the sudden influx of sometimes-wealth. That is the only interesting bit though. The plot centers around what on earth can be happening and why 10 year old girls keep showing up dead (and the reason is basically what you'd imagine). Timothy gets drawn in to it, etc etc. The book is pretty bad. It is one of those books where every time some crisis is resolved, another begins. It never ends and gets tiresome fast.

#27 The Power of Positive Leadership by Jon Gordon *** (nonfiction #10)

Positive people make better leaders than negative people; if you are negative just fake it until you become positive; care about your people and show it and they work hard for you; be a servant leader/lead from behind. One bit I found particularly useful was to praise publicly but criticize in private.

This guy wrote a WHOLE BOOK about this and made money. Insane. It is pretty common sense stuff, and I wondered why it had to be said, and then I remembered some of the bad supervisors I've dealt with in the past and maybe it isn't so common after all.

#28 Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek ***** (nonfiction #11)

This one was great. He talks a lot of general nonsense about brain chemicals as a way to explain people's motivation, and throws in some history, and places some blame on Baby Boomers, and talks about ways in which leadership has failed (in companies and in government).

The big common threads in all of these leadership books is that good leaders/managers lead from behind, do not focus on their own success and fame and fortune, and actually care about their employees.

#29 Iron Gold by Pierce Brown **.5

Honestly I have no idea why I keep doing this to myself. But 4 books into this trilogy, it is clear that I am going to be hate reading this whole series. I'm going to read these books and then complain about them. This iteration actually started out pretty strong. Instead of being entirely from the POV of Darrow the Stupid Jackass, POV chapters are split between Stupid Jackass, a young Red woman on Mars named Lyria, a thief named Ephraim, and a famous Gold named Lysander. The war Darrow started has been going on for 10 years, and for about the first 3/4 of the book, it wasn't nearly as gratuitously violent as the first 3 books. Since it is spilt among different characters with different motivations and different loyalties, it was a lot more nuanced. I liked it, especially the section in the Rim. These books should have starred the au Raa family; they are the best.

Then the last quarter of the book happened, and the lengthy descriptions of inflicting pain, and GOD DARROW IS SO STUPID everything he does is stupid. Why everyone in this series worships him I will never understand. I would pay Brown to kill him off in the next book, honestly.

#30 The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore ****.5 (nonfiction #12)

The loss of the half star is due to the fact that she really needed a better editor - the prose isn't always that strong. That said, this is a well-researched, fascinating book about segregation in Chicago. In this country, Chicago seems to be some sort of code word for violence among black people, and this book explores why this image arose, and presents the history of black migration into Chicago and the resulting segregation of the city in conjunction with the author's personal story, and that of her family, as a backdrop. It is effective. Chicago machine politics and racism are infuriating, so prepare for the book to make you angry.

I read it because I grew up in the Chicagoland area and moved back after 15 years of living elsewhere. I love my city. I think it is so interesting how, despite the fact that the author and I are roughly the same age, we have such different Chicagos. She grew up in the city, I was born in it and then my (white) parents hightailed it to the (super white) suburbs. I'm a North sider, like most white people; she is a South sider. I learned so much more about the South side that I never knew before, both good and bad. There is so much work that needs to be done, and NONE OF IT involves sending in the f'ing National Guard.

#31 Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin (re-read) *.5

I read this a few years back when my financial situation was such that simplicity was NOT voluntary, and I hated it (something he mentions in the book - voluntary simplicity feels good to rich people; enforced simplicity sucks for poor people). I read this again to see if it would have anything new to say to me now that my financial situation has improved, and it did not. I still hate this book.

#32 Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson **** (nonfiction #13)

Oh boy. Tough read, and easy at time to find myself falling into the trap of "oh well I never say that, I would never say that" or "oh, but I agree that black lives matter", and becoming too complacent. After all, there are many white people who are worse. But the book does gently point out again and again the extent to which white people benefit from a system that has been designed to benefit us at the expense of black and brown people. So it was an uncomfortable but necessary read. I cannot imagine (although Dyson does a great job of describing) fearing for my safety every time I am pulled over by a cop. Something needs to change.

#33 Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado ****

This is apparently her debut collection of short stories, and they're really well done. Very strange, though. I liked the Green Ribbon story the best, and the Law and Order SVU one.

#34 The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (re-re-re-re-re-read) *****

I've started and given up halfway through a couple of nonfiction books in the last month (People's History of the United States, this one about women code breakers in WWII, a couple of management books). I'll get to them eventually, but I'm not in the mood right now. I also started Underworld and am about 200 pages in; I like the baseball bits but I'm also not terribly in the mood for what Colson Whitehead has described as "books about upper middle class white people who are sad sometimes". So that is still a work in progress.

To ward off the book slump I felt approaching, I turned to an old and dear friend, Thursday Next. I hadn't read the first one in years - my favorite is #3, The Well of Lost Plots, and I'd forgotten quite a bit of what happens in #1. Loved it, though, 5 stars, just what I needed. Going to read the whole darn series now and probably, concurrently, Jane Eyre.

"books about upper middle class white people who are sad sometimes" He says it well! The Sense of an Ending is a prime example, and almost everything by Ian McEwen.

#35 Lost in a Good Book and #36 The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde re-manytimes-read, both ***** although TWOLP is better.

I love this series, I love these books, I love that Thursday learns to hop in and out of books in these and works with the fabulous Jurisfiction agent Miss Havisham. The Wuthering Heights Anger Management scene is probably one of my favorite chapters in all of literature; not even an exaggeration. These books are full of little inside jokes for the well-read and therefore you all will probably love them if you haven't read them already.

(lots of religion here...)

#37 Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity by David M. Felten and Jeff Proctor-Murphy *** (nonfiction #14)

Back when I was in grad school in St. Louis, I attended a church that had a series that used the video series that inspired the book, and I really enjoyed the series (which featured the likes of Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan and John Shelby Spong, among a diverse group of other progressive theologians) and the discussions that they entailed. This book... not so much. It takes some of the good bits (ie, quotes from the above), but overall I think it is representative of why progressive Christianity is in such rough shape.

The good bits, of both the book and progressive Christianity as a whole, are the emphasis on inclusion, social justice, stewardship of the Earth, and how science is ok and the Bible does not need to be taken literally. However, I feel that they go too far down the road of "but Jesus was only just this guy who was really nice, nothing special about him really, and everyone should be like him". In which case, why bother with the church? I'm no theologian, just someone trying to find meaning in the world (in search of "the more", if you will), but this book didn't really work for me. There is actually a passage in the book where they quote the theologian Yvette Flunder about how in super Jesus-y churches (fyi I am paraphrasing, she is much more eloquent), there is not enough social justice, but in the super social justice-y churches, they lose the sense of awe and wonder. This book does the latter. Lots of social justice (which is TOTALLY NECESSARY), no awe and wonder. Meh.

>59 jfetting: Interesting comments about the Jesusy churches vs. the social justicey churches...........I understand what you are saying. But imho if a church is TRULY Jesusy--that should include social justice, (if we define social justice the same) way, because I believe Jesus was a social justice revolutionary!

>60 Tess_W: Agreed, Jesus-y is probably a bad name for a church that doesn't practice social justice (and we probably define social justice the same way - helping those whom society considers "other" - but maybe not) AND I agree that Jesus was absolutely a social justice revolutionary (who, I would argue, would be appalled at the behavior of those who name-drop him most frequently, but I digress). She also used the term "personal piety" to describe these churches; that may be a better choice.

ETA that "helping" may not be strong enough a word here. To me, social justice is implementing systems such that those whom society considers "other" are by law given the same rights and protections as those whom society has privileged. This biblical shorthand is "widows and orphans and strangers".

ETA again that I should probably think more about the meaning of social justice. Not sure if you intended me to fall down rabbit hole of introspection, Tess, but I thank you for it anyway!

#38 A People's History of Chicago by Kevin Coval *****

I don't read a ton of poetry, because I don't think I understand it (a sentence GUARANTEED to piss off the poets I have met). This collection of poems is excellent and I couldn't put it down. Angry and powerful, and it is weird to say "I loved it" about a collection of poems like this, but I did. Highly recommended.

#39 The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath ***** (nonfiction #15)

Another great management/leadership book. This one talks about the characteristics of powerful, memorable moments and how to cultivate them in the work setting and life in general. I really enjoyed it and will probably be adding it to my collection in 2019.

>61 jfetting: Did not intend for you to fall into any hole! Thanks for the thoughts....

One of the great aspects of reading is that we fall or indeed fling ourselves down holes at least occasionally !

Re social justice vs religious awe, I wonder if the Quakers don't combine them well at times. Social justice has long been a priority for Quakers but the function of silent worship allows for awe, in that people are 'led' to speak (or sing or dance). I went to a Quaker boarding school for most of high school, and there was absolutely a feeling of being 'led' to speak almost against one's will at times, plus the meditative aspects seem very helpful for teenagers.

>65 mabith: interesting, Mabith, I was raised as a Quaker. Would still be attending Meeting if there was one near me; but the closest is about 50 miles away, just too far to travel, especially in bad weather. While I believe and support social justice, I'm not sure that IS the job as the church as an institution, but perhaps the job of the church as a community. As an institution, I believe the job of the church is to warn people of divine justice. That is not to say that the church should not speak out for those who can not speak for themselves, but the church should not become political. That's just my humble opinion after thinking about it for many years and hearing argument on both sides (good arguments on both sides, btw).

#40 Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin **** (1001 book #5)

The reviews I've read of this call it the "German Joyce" or the "German Dos Passos". I can definitely get the comparison to Dos Passos - the same sort of mix of narrative and poetry and references and quotes etc. It is stream-of-consciousness, and the narrator inserts itself and addresses the reader directly in a couple of places. The most interesting thing is that this was written in the late 20s in Weimar Germany, right before everything went to hell, so references to politics probably mean something different to a modern reader than they did to someone who read the book when published.

It is the story of an ex-convict named Franz Bieberkopf and his life after leaving prison. Franz is a pitiable character in several ways, and his story is a bit sad. Even though this is his story, the city itself is a major character also. I really enjoyed it - the copy I read was the Michael Hofmann translation recently published by NYRB Classics. Recommended.

#41 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie *** (nonfiction #16)

The original self-help book - it is so clear reading this (which was originally written back in the 30s) that literally every single financial and business self-help book writer was inspired by this.

It should've been called "how to get along with people on a very superficial level and then sell things to them". Some of it is pretty obvious (everyone wants to feel important and valued; make them feel important and valued and they will like you). The last section, about how to give bad news/criticism to employees is actually pretty great. I argue with his definition of "friends". He says that a great way to make friends is to find something interesting about people and ask them questions and let them talk about themselves nonstop and then they will like you and you will be friends! (and then you can sell them steel or tires or something). Again, this is decent advice, and listening is DEFINITELY underestimated in our world, but that sounds like a really one-sided definition of friendship.

#42 What to Eat by Marion Nestle ***** (nonfiction #17)

This book published in 2007 is a comprehensive, in depth look at what people should eat to be healthy. Nestle is a nutritionist and the book is full of incredibly sensible advice. She explains what the different labels (organic, etc) mean, explains the power of the different food lobbies and how the have the US FDA doing their bidding, etc. It alternates between rage-inducing, hilarious, and informative. She nicely and repeatedly says that Americans are eating too much (but happily it isn't entirely our fault - at the time of writing there were 3900 calories per day per capita in the US) and need to eat less, although this isn't a weight loss book. No magic ingredient to add or remove from our diets.

The book is organized roughly around a US supermarket, with sections on produce, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, frozen foods, and processed foods, and she covers the known health science (always with the caveat that these studies are very hard to do and to interpret, which I really appreciate) and politics and then summarizes with suggestions for what to eat.

I'm now a card-carrying member of the Marion Nestle fan club. Everyone should read this book. I'd love to see an updated version (11 years is a LONG TIME in this field), but she's 82 and I can't blame her if she'd rather not.

You've covered a very wide range. The nutrition book sounds well worth reading, and I'm tempted to check out Dale Carnegie so I can avoid being influenced.

I am a little bit all over the place this year...

#41 Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset ***** (1001 book #6)

I loved this book. It's about the life of a headstrong woman (best kind) back in 14th century Norway, and her life and her kind of worthless husband and her kids and politics and running an estate and the plague etc etc. It is very, very, very, very, very long but totally worth it.

>71 jfetting: Yay! I loved Kristin Lavransdatter. I keep meaning to reread it and not getting to it. Mine is split into 3 books for the separate volumes which makes it feel more manageable (and portable).

If it wasn't on a kindle, I wouldn't have been able to hold it, I think. But it is good enough that I'd like to own a print copy someday.

Kristen is a wonderful protagonist, but I thought that Erlend kind of sucks. The whole plot device where he moves to that random filthy hut in the mountain for like 2 years because Kristen yelled at him about how they have to think about their sons' futures since he basically threw them away by getting caught in that government takeover? That was stupid. He is stupid.

I don't know anything about the history of that region at that time, but I though the details that Undset included about food, clothing, chores, and daily life in 14th century Norway were just fascinating.

>71 jfetting: on my wish list!

>73 jfetting: Yes, one of the reasons I've hesitated on rereading is that I'm afraid I'll be very annoyed by Kristin and Erland's relationship on a second reading. But I also loved all the historical detail. Sigrid Undset's father was an archeologist and I think that's where a lot of her knowledge/interest of the period started.

#42 A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux **** (re-read)

This book, originally written back in 1964 and allegedly "updated" in 2004 is an unintentional hoot. It'll help you know which gloves to wear with which hats and shoes; it ALSO tells you exactly what you should be wearing every hour of the day, in each season, whether you are at your city or country house. VERY APPLICABLE to my life in my 500 sq ft apartment.

I am in desperate need of such a book, however, if it was at all not insane. I read it in one sitting, wearing a pair of capri-length grey sweatpants and an 18-year-old race T-shirt, an outfit that almost perfectly sums up my ability to be elegant.

#43 Underworld by Don DeLillo ** (1001 book #7)

The edition of this book that I read is 827 pages long, and I enjoyed reading the first 60 pages (the baseball game section). The rest of the book left me increasingly bored and confused; I basically skimmed the last 400 pages. It would be a 1-star read without that opening section.

>77 jfetting:. I remember reading it when it was first published, and having exactly the same response.

I thought the description of the World Series game was marvellous, but I found it very difficult to engage with the rest of the novel.

>43 jfetting: Years ago I attempted White Noise. Gave up after twenty pages. After your review of Underworld I'm pretty certain that Don DeLillo is not for me.

>78 Eyejaybee: I just couldn't care about any of the characters, and the POV chapters jumped around so much that I couldn't keep track of who was who and how/if they were connected to any of the other characters, and I don't think I picked up a plot or an overarching theme, and the language wasn't beautiful, so... but that first section was wonderful.

>79 pamelad: I didn't care for White Noise either, although I liked it better than this one. I'm pretty sure DeLillo is not for me, either, and I can stop reading his work now.

#44 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge ***** (nonfiction #18)

Picked this one up at the library because of the title, and I'm glad I did. Unlike most of the books of this sort that I have read, this one is by a non-US author (she is British) and talks about racism, both historical and current, in the UK. Which is interesting to me, because I sort of have always considered racism, particularly against black people, to be a mostly US phenomenon. Nope. So it was quite eye-opening (like this Nick Griffin character - good Lord), although not always understandable to me (I do not understand the British school and university system. What is a "first" when it comes to a degree? What is a 2:1? There are different kinds of graduated? So confusing).

The title comes from a blog post in which the author stated that she had had it with talking about race to white people, as it inevitably ended with white people angrily disagreeing with the concept of white privilege and structural racism. Of course, the whole book is an extended talk to an audience of white people trying to explain the black experience, and how structural racism is a thing that everyone needs to address, which is often hard for white people because they often don't see themselves (we and ourselves, rather) as benefiting from privilege because we never really have to think about it or see it. I can see it - I have had these conversations also and there is a cohort of white people who get really, really, really angry at the concept of white privilege. She is particularly hard on white feminists, and deservedly so - there is an excellent chapter on the subject of intersectionality.

She ends with some suggestions about what white people can do to help with the problem of structural racism (notice it, donate $$ to the causes, talk to other white people about racism even if it is uncomfortable, etc). She doesn't sound terribly optimistic.

#45 The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory ***

Mindless fun. I enjoy her trashy style of historical fiction.

>76 jfetting: LOL, love it!

#46 An American Marriage by Tayari Jones ***

This book was good but not amazing. I didn't know much about it before I read it, and I don't really want to describe the plot because I kind of liked not knowing what The Thing was that was going to happen. The author did a really good job with the different POV chapters - the characters seemed like actual different people, who view the same situation in different ways, which is pretty rare. I feel like so many books that alternate through different POVs all really sound the same. The ending didn't work for me, though. Seemed awfully convenient to have a character like Davina for Roy to fall for so that we don't hate Celestial for getting together with Andre. Although I did get pretty angry at Celestial and Andre..

Definitely worth a read, but not one that I'm going to read again in the future.

#47 Sing Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward ****

Beautifully written, heartbreaking, infuriating book. Jojo is a wonderful character - you just want to protect him - and his parents are THE WORST. I was so angry, reading this book, at the poverty and the racism and the addiction.

#48 Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde **** (re-read)

Thursday returns from Bookworld and rejoins the SpecOps Literatec squad, where she takes on Goliath corporation, fights evil politicians who sound A LOT like some real-life politicians, tries to get her husband un-eradicated, and deals with Hamlet (who popped out of his play for a bit).

#49 Moo by Jane Smiley *** (book off my shelf #5)

Academic satire. I used to be in academia, so some of it is funny to me, and I am definitely a Midwesterner, so a lot of that is funny to me. It stopped being funny about halfway through the book, and my favorite character in the whole thing was the pig. So.

ETA: it is 1 July and I am at 49 books which means that there is a good chance that I will reach 100!

>87 jfetting: I remember feeling much the same about Moo. I read it when it was first published and initially thought it was great, but found that completing it became quite a chore. Then, a few years ago, one of my friends was raving about how marvellous it was so I thought I would read it again to see if age gave it a better persepctive. It didn't - I wasn't able to finish it the second time around.

Good luck with the second half of the year for the challenge - you seem to be pacing it almost perfectly.

#50 Snow by Orhan Pamuk ** (1001 book #8)

Huh. I think this could have been really interesting - a novel in part about the tension between secularists and Islamists in Turkey in the late 1990s/early 2000s time frame. Pamuk injects himself into the book, and I always enjoy when authors do that, but for some reason the story didn't work for me. The protagonist (Ka) is an exiled poet who returns to Turkey to... it isn't exactly clear, something about a pretty woman, something about a rash of teenage girls committing suicide. There is a coup, but it is a weird coup. The whole time I read it I kept thinking "this is obviously supposed to be a very deep and profound novel", but if it was actually a deep and profound novel, I would be absorbed and not thinking that, right?

#51 The Undressing: Poems by Li-Young Lee ***

Oh boy. Ok. So I picked this up because I read an article about the best books of 2018 so far and this book was on the list and I knew that Li-Young Lee is a poet and I'm trying to read more poetry. I'm still digesting the book. I always think I'm missing something when I read poetry (I like to know what things mean. That isn't always possible with poems), but I did really enjoy the imagery with these poems, although I wish I knew more about his background because several of the poems were about fleeing a war-torn land.

Hi, Jen! You've passed the half way point!

I know! There is hope for me this year!

#52 Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde ***** (re-read)

Thursday has aged a bit - it is now 2002, and she and Landon have multiple children. Goliath is up to its old tricks, Thursday jumps back and forth between her alleged real job at a carpet factory, her secret job in SpecOps, and her supersecret job in Jurisfiction. Same sneaky literary references and craziness that I love in these book. It is good to read them again.

I've been wanting to do a reread of the entire series. What I want is annotated editions!

>92 ronincats: That would be genius. I can pick up a bunch of the references (and I'm sure you can too) but I know I must be missing some.

#53 The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg **** (nonfiction #19)

Fascinating look at habits and how they change our brains and why it is so darn hard to change our habitual behaviors.

#54 One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde ***** (reread)

Real Thursday is MIA, and so we follow the adventures of written Thursday as she wanders around Bookworld and tries to find her. Highly entertaining.

#55 Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil *****

I loved this slim poetry collection. Poems about love and nature and loss, but mostly love, and a couple of excellent "found poems" that appear to be Yelp reviews of spectacular things like the Great Wall and the Taj Mahal. Highly, highly recommended even if you aren't a poetry person.

#56 The View From Flyover Country by Sarah Kendzior **** (nonfiction #20)

This was an interesting collection of essays about politics and life in the Midwest. The essays were written around 2010-2016, and cover police violence, economic recovery that doesn't benefit everyone (especially rural people), and race relations. Definitely worth a read.

#57 Feel Free by Zadie Smith **.5 (nonfiction #21)

Getting a lot of nonfiction in this year, apparently. So this is a really long collection of essays, and I'm not going to pretend I read all of them closely. I liked the one about the importance of libraries (and I can't believe that there are people out there that don't use their libraries, but I know so many of them) and the one about how Le Guin is amazing (she was amazing). There are a lot of reviews about books and art installations and I don't have a lot of experience with either (the ones she reviews, anyway). Plus she is kind of pretentious and I find her essays annoying. There, I said it.

#58 Electric Arches by Eve Ewing *****

A slim and wonderful collection of poetry by a Chicago poet. Even if you don't like poetry or don't get poetry, you should really read this book. I loved it. I will buy it in 2019.

I have read 6 whole books of poetry this year. My goodness. Who would have guessed.

>98 jfetting: I know about libraries! Just this week I had a colleague look at me in disbelief that you could get ebooks from the library. Shocking! And, as a parent, I can't believe how many other parents I know that don't use their libraries for their kids. Even if kids don't like reading - every kid likes to be able to pick out whatever they want and take it home. And maybe they'll read something along the way.

OK, off my high horse . . .
:-)

>98 jfetting: and I've been interested in reading some poetry so I will definitely check this out.

>99 japaul22: Books are expensive and not every book is worth reading multiple times! With the ebooks in libraries, you never have to leave your house to check out books!

I remember going to the library every week during the summer when I was a kid and picking out like 10 books or something each week (probably an exaggeration). And it was all the way across the river! It was FAR. I'll never understand. I got so worked up when I read that stupid Forbes article about how libraries should shut down in favor of Amazon. F. THAT.

#59 Circe by Madeline Miller *****

I loved The Song of Achilles and I loved Circe. They're wonderful. She picks minor characters from ancient myths and is therefore able to add to their stories while keeping to the main lines of the stories we all know. Just brilliant. I hope she keeps it up. I especially liked the female POV in this one, and Circe being a Titan/nymph hybrid means that we can meet Medea, Helios, several Olympian gods, Daedalus and Odysseus.

#60 The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani ***** (nonfiction #22)

Kakutani was a New York Times book critic for decades. Here, she pulls from her vast reading and knowledge of postmodernism to trace the shift in the importance of truth in our lives. She is not a fan of Donald Trump. Her descriptions of him and his abuse of language, and her clever and cutting insults are brilliantly crafted - she can use words in a way that few can. The whole book doesn't just elegantly and wittily trash Trump, however. She is equally harsh on the Republican and early liberal adopters of postmodernism in politics outside of literature.

#61 Boundaries by Henry Cloud **** (nonfiction #23)

Healthy boundaries in relationships - all relationships - are important and I am bad at them. This book had some really helpful advice but apparently it is a very Christian book. Most important take home message: if you can't say a wholehearted "yes" (that is, if you aren't really sure if you want to do something), it is better to say "no". I've never even considered doing that; tellingly, the people I know who have the hardest time respecting my boundaries are all TOTALLY 100% against this strategy.

#62 Hamilton: the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter *** (book off my shelf #6)

So I love Hamilton the musical, and here in Chicago we've been lucky enough to have a sitdown show for the past 2 years and I've seen it twice. Bought the book at the height of Hamilton fever and I'm just getting around to reading it now. Half of the book is the libretto, with sidebar notes from Miranda talking about the creative process, things he learned, why he went certain routes, etc. 5 stars for this section; it was really entertaining. The other half of the book is written by the other author, and he talks about the show and its beginnings and its creation and its actors and whatnot. It is fawning in tone, to the point where it is pretty off-putting. 2 stars for this part.

#63 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter *** (nonfiction #24)

Oh how little have things changed in this country.

#64 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante ***

This was fun - a mindless, easy read about a girl growing up in Naples in the 50s and 60s.

#65 Whiskey and Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith ****

Don't remember where I first came across a recommendation for this debut novel, but I really enjoyed it. Love and loss and friendship and family and heartbreak and music and food. All of the characters were complex and sympathetic - no one was an obvious Bad Person Whom We Must Hate.

#66 Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley **** (re-read)

A helpful reminder; stress + Jen = retail therapy, but I have goals and need to not spend money on things.

#67 Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn *** (book off my shelf #7)

Entertaining little epistolary novel about the consequences for a small (imaginary) island nation when its statue of its founder, who allegedly made up the shortest sentence that uses all 26 letters, starts losing letters.

#68 Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin **** (reread)

Is that book/car/eyeshadow/pair of shoes worth whatever percentage of your time it takes to earn the money to pay for them? Interesting look at spending and becoming financially independent. My only quibble is that it leans pretty far on the side of "don't spend money ever".

#69 The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu **** (nonfiction #25)

Fascinating look at the issues along the US-Mexico border, written by a former border patrol agent. It is a complex issue. I tend to lean on the side of allowing people in, but the drug smuggling and human trafficking are definite concerns.

The most horrifying section in the whole book is a short one about people in the US who buy ranches along the border and don't actually use them for ranching - they use them to hunt migrants trying to cross the border. Using night vision goggles. Very The Most Dangerous Game and completely horrifying and I had no idea people did that. People can be absolutely terrible. It sickens me.

#70 Compulsory Games by Robert Aickman *****

This is an absolutely fantastic short story collection. The first study in the collection (the title story) is a little weak, I think, compared to the others. It almost made me stop reading but I'm glad I didn't. The stories are spooky and creepy and weird. Some were actually full-on scary (although please bear in mind that I am a giant wimp and can't handle scary movies or stories). Highly recommended.

#71 Millionaire Women Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley *** (nonfiction #25)

I didn't like this one as much as I liked his other books. It is a lot more about feelings and less about how much millionaire women spend on watches. Could be because his N is much smaller - he only profiled millionaire women who made their own money, not women who are millionaires because of their successful husbands. As always, the moral is don't spend money on stupid stuff.

#72 The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante *****

Love these books, even though I can't stand any of the characters except for Elena herself. Alphonso is ok, I guess. So in this installment, Elena finishes high school and goes to university and continues to let herself be used horribly by Lina who is THE SECOND WORST. She is awful - Lina is a terrible, terrible friend and a terrible person and whenever something bad happens to Lina in the book, I am ok with it. She sucks, she is so mean (I have totally had friends like Lina - the mean ones who always try to make you feel bad - and so I suppose I take this a bit too personally given that these are fictional characters). The only person in the whole book that could possibly be worse than Lina is Nino. Who is awful and I wish that Ferrante had written for his character to drown in the sea, or maybe be run over by a motorcycle. THE WORST.

I was so angry when he showed up again on the last page! Stop it, Nino! Do not ruin Elena's life! Let her marry her nice fiancee and enjoy her new status as an author and GO AWAY. He doesn't go away, does he?

#73 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee ****

This one came so close to being a 5-star read. I loved the characters we met at the beginning of the story, and reading about their struggles and triumphs over the decades. For me, it went off the rails a bit as additional characters were introduced for just a chapter or two - Haruki the policeman's wife, for example, and her trip to the grove or whatever where all of the people went to hook up. I'm assuming the point of that chapter was to emphasize that Haruki was gay, but that had already been stated. Solomon's stepmother, her daughter, etc. All unnecessary. Still, excellent read.

#74 I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara **** (nonfiction #26)

Oooh this was a creepy and fun nonfiction book about a serial rapist/killer who terrified the Bay Area and Southern California back in the late 70s/early 80s. I remember hearing on the news that they caught the guy - he was an former cop, which is hinted at in the book (written and published before he was caught) but not stated outright and some characters go out of their way to emphasize how they DON'T think he could be a cop. Obviously wrong. Anyway, makes me want to never ever live in a one-story house.

>111 jfetting: Your #74 disturbed me deeply, I didn't sleep right the whole time I was reading it. I've heard that they're going to do an updated version where they compare the theories with what we now know about the guy's life, which I think would be interesting.

>112 LibraryLover23: I got up in the middle of reading it and went and locked my door. Unlikely that anyone is going to break in and kill me up here on the 25th floor of a high rise building, but better safe than sorry.

I'd love to read a comparison of the theories in the book with the facts of the guy's life.

#75 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante ***

I suppose that ending was inevitable. Ugh, though. I hope it all works out, but I suspect it won't. Elena is less interesting a character in this book, but still my favorite of the bunch. I've already checked out the last book in the quartet.

#76 Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol **** (1001 #9 for "The Nose")

I was not aware that Great Russian Authors could be funny, and yet Gogol was, especially in the title story and in The Nose. The Overcoat is in this one, also, and it is more poignant than funny. The whole collection is worth a read, except maybe for the folk tale at the end.

#77 The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri **.5

Italian modern fantasy-ish novel about 4 friends who meet up each year, and then 1 of them doesn't show up. Had a lot of potential, but ultimately fell short - there were a lot of moments intended to be dramatic, but which fell flat. I was angry about the treatment of animals, and that was pretty much the only emotion I felt in the whole book.

=115 I love Gogol's short stories, which I think are much better than this full length works.

#78 The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante ***

Interesting that this whole novel is titled "The Story of the Lost Child" when that incident occurs so late in it. This is the final installment of Elena and Lila's story, and I found it a little unsatisfying compared to the 2nd and 3rd books. I would have expected some of the storylines to be more emotionally charged (eg, Elena and Nino The Worst), but I suppose that what Ferrante wrote is more realistic, and the series is really about Elena's relationship with her frenemy Lila, not her relationship Nino.

#79 Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol *** (1001 #10)

Well, john257hopper, I am right there with you. While amusing in places, this was nowhere near as good as the short stories.

#80 The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai *****

Friends, I have found my #1 book of 2018. There is no topping this one. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and I had to force myself to stop reading it and go to bed at around midnight two nights running (I am not a night owl). There are two connected storylines - one is set in Paris in 2015 and is told from the POV of Fiona, who is a mother in her 50s looking for her daughter. The other is set in mid-1980s/early 1990s Chicago, in Boystown, and tells the story of the AIDS epidemic sweeping the country from the POV of a young, gay art fundraiser named Yale who works for Northwestern University (go wildcats). The 2015 storyline would be pretty great in any other book, but the 1985ish storyline blows it out of the water. The losses Yale experiences, his fear, and his growing activism make his section compulsively readable. He is a wonderful character - I have a giant crush on him - and part of the page-turning nature of the book for me is that I wanted to know what happens to him. Hoping against hope that he would be one of the ones who makes it through.

The chapter in which he finds out he has been infected with HIV is brutal and spare and perfectly gets across his confusion and fear and realization of all he was going to lose and how very beautiful life is. I cried like a baby. I so so so wanted him, this fictional character, to be ok.

Makkai is a Chicagoland native and it shows. Except for the name of the art gallery Yale works for at Northwestern (Briggs Gallery in the book, Block Gallery in real life), every street name and restaurant and bar and store is/was a real place. I lived in Boystown right after college and am just a few blocks north of there now, so while reading the book, I kept remembering that area as it was in 2000 - not too terribly different than 1992, really, except that by 2000 the good drugs were available, and I did not see obviously sick men on the streets.

TL;DR: read this book

>118 jfetting:. That sounds amazing, and has definitely gone onto my TBR list.
Thanks for a great review.

#81 Life Without Plastic by Jay Sinha *** (nonfiction #27)

This felt self-published (not a compliment) and quite a lot of it made me roll my eyes. Their intro chapters use a lot of anecdotes to talk about how plastic is bad, although they do have some citations to published studies. Once they get to the details of how to avoid plastic, the book gets better, and they have many useful suggestions.

The back of the book is a detailed list of where to buy non-plastic versions of everyday products, and they actually list stores OTHER than the one they own (which is also apparently called Life Without Plastic).

#82 The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte *** (nonfiction #28)

For a book subtitled "A New History of a Lost Word", he spends a lot of time in this book talking about himself. I read this because I wanted to read about dinosaurs, and the dinosaur bits are really good, and the chapter about the asteroid/comet strike at the end of the Cretaceous is fantastic. Unfortunately, there isn't anywhere near enough of this. The author fictionalizes interactions between dinosaurs - unnecessary - but presents a fair bit of interesting info about geology, ecology, etc along with the dinosaur bit.

However, this book was billed as a dinosaur book, not a memoir of this guy's experience as a 30-something paleontologist. Unfortunately, that is kind of what we get. Every single living scientist in the books is described as brilliant, and he makes sure to describe their fashion sense (why?). He describes HIMSELF as "ebullient" and his own smile (HIS OWN SMILE) as "megawatt". The writing is pretty bad. Now, there is nothing wrong with books that describe the care and feeding of young scientists - the world could use more of it, I think - but I didn't want it in a book in which I was hoping to learn more about dinosaurs.

#83 Transcription by Kate Atkinson ****

While not as good as Life After Life (almost nothing is), I really enjoyed Atkinson's latest about a woman who worked at MI5 during WWII. The book mostly jumps between her activities during 1940 and her life as an employee of the BBC in 1950. There is a bit of a twist at the end (I was surprised, anyway). Very good book.

Good to know about the Dinosaur book. That was on my wish list, but now I'm not so sure. I really don't like nonfiction where the author inserts him/herself.

And that's good to hear about Transcription. I'll look forward to it, but not expect another Life After Life.

>122 japaul22: Then I think you will probably find the dinosaur book rough going. I was reading some reviews for it on Goodreads to see if anyone else had the same reaction I did and I kept seeing people defending it saying "It is a MEMOIR he is supposed to talk about himself". But it is not billed as a memoir, even if it reads like one. Very disappointing.

#84 The Year of Less by Cait Flanders **** (nonfiction #29)

I had expected more of a how-to, or a description of the choices Cait made in her year-long challenge to not shop or buy things that weren't necessary. However, YET AGAIN, I am fooled by a nonfiction book that turned out to be a memoir. However, this one was kind of less offensive because I found myself empathizing with Cait in a lot of ways, although our stories are very different. Still, the use of shopping/eating/whatever to mask emotional pain or discomfort really resonated in some uncomfortable ways and so this gave me a lot to think about.

Flippant side note: after 2.5 years back in Chicago, I am SO ENVIOUS of people who can just randomly go finding hiking trails up mountains in the woods on the weekend whenever they way.

Just got the audiobook for The Great Believer, next in line.

#85 The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino **** (book off my shelf #8)

One of Calvino's strange little novels - this is about a boy who argues with his family at the age of 12 and decides to spend the rest of his life in trees - never touching the ground - especially after an encounter with his neighbor. The book is sort of about what he does. It's Calvino, so there is both a lot going on and almost nothing going on. Well worth reading.

#86 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie *** (book off my shelf #9)

I've had this on my to-read shelf for years - since I first started listing books at LT - and it was fine. Quick, easy little novel about 2 teenage boys who were re-educated in the country in China during the Cultural Revolution. They find some books, they meet a little seamstress. The ending was not unexpected.

#87 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward **.5

Growing up in the US, we're told about Woodward and Bernstein, and Watergate, and how they were these great journalists that Took Down Nixon. So I had expected Woodward to be... a talented writer. Nope. This book was not good.

Here are my hypotheses for his (unnamed) sources:

1) Reince Priebus
2) Steve Bannon
3) That Cohn Guy
4) Also That Dowd Guy
5) Ivanka and/or Jared, but probably Ivanka

#88 Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh **** (re-read)

This book is so good - it's clearly setting up a trilogy, and spends a lot of time introducing us to the characters and the settings. I read this first installment when it came out and acquired the other two as they were published, but hadn't read them. Moving on to the second one tonight!

#89 River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh **** (book off my shelf #10)

The second book in the trilogy is very good, but I think it is weaker than the first one. I loved all of the characters we learned about in the first book, and this second one follows 2 of them (sort of), but mainly focuses on a group of mostly British opium "importers" who live in Canton and shamelessly smuggle opium into the country despite China's laws against it. These guys are infuriating and I was rooting for the Chinese to off them all.

Still, so far the trilogy is excellent and I'm starting the final volume tonight.

#90 Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart by Alice Walker ***** (book off my shelf #11)

Confession time. Remember that goal I made back in January to not buy books? While technically I did not go out and buy books this year, I attended 4 lectures that provided a book with the price of the ticket (could've bought the cheaper ticket and NOT received a book, but I did not, and I continue to lie to myself and say that I did not buy books this year. I should be more ashamed than this, I think). This is one of those books.

First, Alice Walker is absolutely a national treasure - I love her novels. I've never read her poetry, but her writing is so beautiful in her novels that I am not surprised that her poetry turned out to be pretty great. It is very opinionated. She is full of opinions, so if you don't like her opinions, you may hate her poems. I loved them.

The lecture/conversation was also a delight - she is funnier than I had expected, and she pulls no punches and suffers no fools.

#91 Eat, Drink, Vote by Marion Nestle *** (nonfiction #30)

This wasn't what I had expected - it is a very short overview of food politics and the food system in the US, illustrated with lots and lots of New Yorker-style cartoons. It was an ok read, but not what I was looking for.

#92 Women & Money by Suze Orman *** (nonfiction #31)

Standard advice, although she recommends an emergency fund of 8 months of expenses.

#93 After Claude by Iris Owens * (book off my shelf #12)

I received this book through the LT Early Reviewers program back in 2010, and I am only getting around to reading and reviewing it now, towards the end of 2018. *hangs head in shame*

As for the book - I thought it was terrible. I didn't find Harriett funny at all - she is awful, as are every single other character in the book. It was originally written in 1973, I think, and much of the humor (especially the constant use of the word "fag") does not translate to today. A rare miss from one of my most trusted publishers, NYRB Classics.

#94 In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant *** (book off my shelf #13)

Entertaining trashy historical fiction (not as trashy as Philippa Gregory, despite the title) about a dwarf/pimp and a high-class courtesan who live in Rome in like the 1500s, I think, until it is sacked by the Holy Roman Emperor's army, maybe? Or some Spaniards and some German Lutherans. It isn't that important. After their "business" gets trashed in the first couple chapters, they barely escape with their lives to Venice, where they go back into business after a setback, meet Titian, and some more things happen. Definitely a fun read.

#95 The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni *** (1001 #10)

Apparently this is one of those books that is continually forced on Italian schoolchildren while they are growing up (kind of like The Tell-Tale Heart in my life). It is entertaining and supermelodramatic - evil Don Roderick is trying to seduce poor, sweet, helpless Lucia and so orders some spineless priest to not marry her and her fiance Renzo. There are shady nuns and sketchy bravos and holy priests and an outlaw called The Unknown and the plague. It's fun.

#96 The Woman who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde **** (reread)

Forgot this one from earlier in the year (and if I'm going to get to 100, I need to include them all). This is the last of the published Thursday Next books and it isn't my favorite, although any Thursday Next is better than no Thursday Next.

#97 Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh **** (book off my shelf #14)

I'm sorry to see this trilogy end - there is an epilogue to this one that kind of sort of hastily wraps things up, but I would've been happy to read several more books with these characters.

#98 Becoming by Michelle Obama ***** (nonfiction #32)

I'm going to try my best to write an unbiased review. This is a fascinating look at the childhood, courtship, marriage, and life of the former First Lady of the United States. She started out in an ok-at-the-time-but-going-downhill neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago (and you all know by now how much I love a Chicagoan). Her mother and father were loving, supportive, and huge advocates for her at school. She ended up testing into a magnet school and then going to Princeton for her undergrad and Harvard for law school. Obama tells a lot of personal details about her career, meeting her eventual husband, her fertility issues, marriage counseling, and her children's lives in the White House. A couple of sections made me cry. I learned A LOT of things I never knew about life on the campaign trail and life in the White House. It is worth reading just for that part if you are not a Michelle Obama fan.

There, I did it. That was nice and unbiased, right? A positive review for a well-written memoir?

Here is the biased one, should you be interested:

OMG I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!! She is so great. Her book is so great. To think that we had 8 years of these truly decent human beings in the White House. It is so upsetting to see how much of the good they did is now being overturned by the current occupant.

>136 jfetting: I had this on hold at the library but bought it today at Costco when I saw it because I want to support this woman so much!

>137 ronincats: Yes, once this year and the book ban is over, I'm buying it for myself. I, too, want to support her.

#99 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ***** (many times re-read)

Christmas tradition. My copy is a gorgeous Folio Society version that is such a tactile pleasure to read. I love the story. Another part of Christmas tradition in my family is to watch the Alistair Sim film version on Christmas Eve while drinking chocolate martinis (this is the only correct and proper version; all others are wrong; I will argue this point forever). I am looking forward to that as well.

More importantly, for the first time in 4 or 5 YEARS, I have actually managed to read 100 books. *pats self on back*

MOST IMPORTANTLY, I cannot count. This is only #99. My self congratulations are premature. I am leaving this up so that I can learn humility.

Congratulations! Have a great holiday.

>139 jfetting: Congratulations on reaching 100. Nice to do it with an old favourite, too :).

>140 torontoc: and >141 Eyejaybee: Premature, I'm afraid - entirely my fault. Time to go read a book so that I'll get there soon!

So after scanning my bookshelves for the shortest possible read, I came across:

#100 for real this time Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott ***.5 (book off my shelf #15)

So I had expected a science fiction-y book about math. There is definitely some geometry here, and I love the visualization of what it would be like to live in Flatland and Lineland and Pointland. Also, try picturing what 5th, 6th, etc. dimensions would look like (yes, yes, tesseract, whatever). But there is also a heaping dose of what I most definitely hope is social satire. Quite enjoyable.

And NOW I can rejoice that I read 100 books.

Congrats!

Interested in your take on Flatland. This had been on my TBR for years until I finally got around to getting a copy a few months ago. Was very disappointed! Couldn't get past about page 17 - it just seemed completely impenetrable.

Congratulations Jennifer ! Will get Becoming for Christine's Xmas present, thanks for your review !

>145 bryanoz: This is a GREAT Christmas present! I hope she loves it!

#101 Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald *** (book off my shelf #16)

Completely mediocre book. I just finished it and I have already forgotten it.

#102 Destination Bethlehem by J. Barrie Shepherd ***** (reread)

An Advent tradition - this has a reading of some sort (essay or poetry) for each day of Advent. It is a nice way for me to force myself to slow down, at least for 10 minutes, during the holidays and enjoy the season.

#103 The Book of Night Women by Marlon James *****

Holy smokes, this is a powerful book. James's A Brief History of Seven Killings was one of my favorite books of 2017 - possibly my most favorite book of 2017 - and his debut novel is just as good. It is ALSO incredibly violent and brutal (set on a sugar plantation in the late 1700s in Jamaica); people, mostly slaves, die in all sorts of painful and graphic ways. I should have hated it and stopped reading after a couple chapters but James is such a fantastic writer that I couldn't put it down. His characters are absolutely wonderful, and horrible, but gripping. Highly recommended.

There is a very good chance that I will finish the year at 103, but in preparation for next year, I've set up a 100 Books in 2019 Challenge group at the link below.

2019 Group: https://www.librarything.com/groups/100booksin2019challe

jfetting thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/301206

ETA: come and join me over there! Right now it feels a little bit like I threw a party and no one showed up!

testing

>150 jfetting: Thanks, Jennifer. I am looking forward to another enjoyable 100 book challenge and have signed up again. Thank you for creating the group, and best wishes for 2019.