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Documentary reviews, body neutrality, parenting, Jupiter, piano, cats, European history, ghosts, rodents, the collapse of civilization, and if this goes on long enough I'll probably end up cataloguing my entire smushed penny collection.

Still reading books in the year of our lord 2023

Every year my friend gently bullies me into setting a “reading challenge” goal on Goodreads. This year I did not achieve my goal of 50 books, landing hard at 47 (prime number!) instead.

The shortest book (144 pages) I read this year was All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first book in the Murderbot series. Many people have not-so-gently encouraged me to read this book and it only took me six years to get to it! I enjoyed it, but not enough to continue the series. Sorry.

The longest book (868 pages) I read this year was The Patriarch by David Nasaw. This is about Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of JFK and RFK and Teddy and pretty much everyone. This is the book that kicked off my Kennedy era in reading and it’s very good.

Other notable books from 2023:

  • Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Just a fun one all around, and short!
  • The Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark. Guys, I just can’t anymore with Mary Higgins Clark. I was enjoying her as a fun cabin read but her books are so vapid and formulaic it turns out five is my limit. Never again!
  • Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Fascinating walk through a teenage boy’s brain and bonus introduction to Iran.
  • Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. Addresses our life and our times and I just keep thinking about this one even months later.
  • Greenglass House by Kate Milford. My kid brought this one home from the elementary school library; I stole it and read it in two days. The setting alone is worth the read.
  • Pageboy by Elliot Page. Elliot, you seem great, but I did not enjoy your memoir.
  • Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry. Matthew, you seem great, and we all had no idea how much you were suffering this whole time. One of the most devastating memoirs I’ve ever read.
  • We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter by Rachel Hanel. I really loved this memoir. It’s not about graveyards so much as it is about time and family and heirlooms.
  • All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley. Struggling to find meaning in his life and his work after his brother’s early death from cancer, Patrick Bringley takes a job as a guard at the Met in NYC. This book is beautiful, meditative, and hopeful. And it made me miss the Met even more.
  • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I adore Emily St. John Mandel, but this one sat on my bedside table for over a year before I finally picked it up and read it. I am sorry it took me so long, Emily. You’re a motherfucking genius and I love you. Please come to Minnesota so I can get my book signed. K thx.

I didn’t start actively reading as an adult until my second kid was born in 2015. I was desperate for the baby and the toddler to nap at the same time; I really needed the mental break! The toddler would go down and stay down just fine for 90 minutes, but the baby was a baby and wouldn’t stay asleep unless I was laying right there next to him. So I got in the habit of laying in the bed with the baby during naptime. I couldn’t wake him up with television, so I started reading instead. The habit has stuck, and although I did not make my reading challenge goal this year, I’m still pleased with my reading accomplishments.