March Reading Wrap Up+

March. Typically one of my fav months. It is my birthday month after all. But this month has been something else. And by something else, I mean I got a kidney stone and I very much recommend you do not get a kidney stone because it has not been fun and has involved so far a trip to the ER and overnight hospital stay and 3 separate procedures to remove the thing cos it was too big to pass on its own. Every doctor and nurse who heard the size made the same shocked face, which is fun. 

But there has also been good stuff! I mean my birthday, obv. Also Tom's birthday. We closed on our house! After over a year and a half of searching for something. I mean we haven't moved into it yet (and won't for another month or so) but still! We got a house and where we want it, so I'm pretty excited. And I was co-maid-of-honor in a wedding with a bride that was v chill and I got to see lots of friends, many of whom I don't see that often, so that was also good! Real rollercoaster these last few weeks.

Also, I can't get any images to upload. It's been a week of trying (and by that I mean I wrote this a week ago, couldn't get the images to upload, forgot about this for a week and then tried again and it didn't work and here we are). I'll try to update this later

But let's focus on what's important here, which is the books

Total Books Read

5

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Watership Down by Richard Adams

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Momma Cusses: A Field Guide to Responsive Parenting & Trying Not to Be the Reason Your Kid Needs Therapy by Gwenna Laithland

The Body: An Occupant's Guide by Bill Bryson

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

I can't remember exactly what I saw but there was a tweet or something talking about Bourdain and I realized I wanted to hear something from him. In his voice. And while I've read Kitchen Confidential a number of times (though not since 2013, per my tracking) so figured why not give it another go. It's still great (especially being read by Bourdain). Sure there are some pieces that perhaps made me cringe a bit, but given the book is over 20 years old I suppose that's not too much of a surprise. 

Rating: 5 stars

Watership Down by Richard Adams

I read a description of this that called it "Game of Bunnies" and before reading this I would have thought it was an exaggeration. Now though. Pretty accurate. Danger and fighting and adventure and peril. And bunnies. And made up bunny language that in an audiobook just sounds like muffled coughing. This feels like a book that, had I read it as a young child would have been amazing. As an adult it was more "oh ok. Bunnies do live rich and detailed lives. But also they're bunnies and the drama juxtaposed with an image of bunnies munching on clover in a field is pretty funny. 

Rating: 3.25 stars

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Southern gothic and haunted houses and family secrets. Yes, yes, yes these are all great. Sam has some time to kill after her anthropological / entomological dig is postponed, so why not spend some time with mom in her rural southern town? But something seems off with mom. The house isn't filled with the normal cluttered warmth she expects but instead replaced with everything her hated Granmay loved (plain walls, a confederate wedding picture). Even her mom's personality seems different, almost like she's being watched. Beyond just being watched by a flock of vultures that have been convening around the house. The book has more humor with it than I anticipated but at times the humor was a real shift in the tension that was building, and not in a great way. I also couldn't help but compare it to Grady Hendrix's How To Sell A Haunted House that dealt with some similar themes but in a very different (and IMO better) way. But to be fair to the book, some of my hesitation to the story could have come from the audiobook narrator and overall I wanted to find out what would happen next.

Rating: 3.6 stars

Momma Cusses: A Field Guide to Responsive Parenting & Trying Not to Be the Reason Your Kid Needs Therapy by Gwenna Laithland

I've been following Mama Cusses TikTok (or really, IG Reels) account for a while since the algorithm decided I would be interested and sometimes it gets it right. I was laying around in the hospital waiting to see if I would get on the OR schedule when I got an alert from my library that the book just became available and immediately borrowed it. I would like to do what the subtitle of the book says and not be the reason my kid needs therapy, and in general I like her strategies she shares in her videos. She provides strategies for responsive (as opposed to reactive) parenting, helping children learn to identify and manage their emotions, which also involves a lot of parents learning how to identify and manage their own emotions and triggers. There was a lot here I liked and would like to try and I may even buy a copy of this book to have as reference

Rating: 4 stars

The Body: An Occupant's Guide by Bill Bryson

I started this book because I finished A House with Good Bones while I was at the hospital and couldn't get the TV to work so figured I'd put on an audiobook I already had and this seemed like a good option for when my body was BETRAYING ME. Then I got the alert about the Momma Cusses book and since that has a time limit I switched to that. But still, this is always a fun read if you want to learn more about the body and some of the history of how we know the things we know. Or maybe how Samuel Pepys (the English diarist) had a kidney stone the size of a tennis ball, because that was something that I had read before (having read this book multiple times) but the severity wasn't really brought home until I was dealing with my own significantly smaller stone. He would keep it in a box to show people at an annual dinner party and you know what, I would do the same if I dealt with that, so well-played.

Rating: 5 stars

Pages read

1,789

Fiction

40%

Female authors

40%

BIPOC authors

0% - again. siiiigh

US authors

80%

Reread

40%

Format

audiobook - 100%

Where'd I get the book

Kindle/Audible - 20%

Library - 80%

Book club reads

20%

Decade published

1970s - 20%

2000s - 20%

2010s - 20%

2020s - 40%

Resolution books

20%

Just Watership Down which is both not a US author (he's British) and published before 2000

February Reading Wrap-Up+

We've made it through another month and I'm in a pretty good mood because the weather was very nice today and it's amazing how that can make all the difference, especially after heavy rain the day before. The little monster and I spent time doing a "nature walk" (i.e., did our normal walk around the neighborhood but this time he brought his digital camera to take pictures of robins and squirrels) and it's really the little things.

Let's see what February looked like in terms of reading

Reading journal from both Jan and Feb since I already forgot to include in my Jan wrap up

Total books read

4

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and a Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford

Off The Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

I also started Doppleganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein that, while an interesting was a bit dry and also long and I was not feeling it at the time. 

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and a Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford

There was a period in the late '90s/early '00s when Comedy Central regularly aired stand up comedy specials (crazy, I know) and I still quote a number of these today. Maria Bamford was among those so of course I was excited to listen to her book. She talks about, as the subtitle says, her mental illness and the various Anonymous groups she joins because who doesn't love belonging to a group? The book meandered a few times and while I love Bamford's voice and delivery, this probably works better as a physical book, given the audiobook often said to refer to some PDF that I did not have

Rating: 3.5 stars

Off The Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill

OK well I picked up this book because I thought it was about conspiracy theories in general and I still think that title suggests that but instead it was focused on flat earthers. Which is fine and it is a group I do not quite understand because of the mounds and mounds of evidence of, you know, not being round. But it is interesting to see how in general this conspiracy started back in the 1800s and how it has grown. Ultimately, I would have preferred this be about conspiracy theories more generally (and looking through a few other reviews, I wasn't alone in that assumption) and this got a little repetitive for me but it was interesting nevertheless.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Man, I love this book. A friend (hi friend!) was reading the fourth in the series so naturally I had to go back and listen to this again. Was it just as good the second time around? Yes, of course it was. Were there moments that meant nothing the first time around but then as I got to know the characters I realized the significance of things on a second read? Yes, a bunch of those. Will I read it again? Absolutely.

Rating: 5 stars

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Here's another re-read. I had been listening to Doppelganger for I can't remember how many hours but I was on day 4 of listening when I decided I was not enjoying myself and since I am reading for enjoyment, perhaps my time could be better spent elsewhere. But when none of the other books on my TBR list were available from the library, I decided to dig into my archives and check this one out again because I remembered it being silly and fun and funny. And guess what, it was all of that again. Is it little silly at times? Sure, of course. But it's all in good fun and I enjoyed myself just as much the second time around.

Rating: 4 stars

Pages read

1,280

Fiction

50%

Female authors

75%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

75%

Reread

50%

Format

audiobook - 100%

Where'd I get the book

library - 50%

gift - 50%

Decade published

2010s: 25%

2020s: 75%

Resolution books

25%

Only Thursday Murder Club as it is by a UK author.

January Reading Wrap-Up+

Look at that. Another January is behind us. I didn't really make any resolutions for the new year. I rarely do. Usually because I don't know what to aim for. I am trying to keep in mind that resolutions can be fun. They don't have to be stuff about losing weight or...what are other stereotypical resolutions? Anyway, not that. Maybe I'll aim to make new recipes this year. Keep on reading. Maybe try to make something, though honestly trying to make something is less appealing while we're still in between where we will be staying long term (because making something means acquiring things for the making which means I will need to pack up and move those things and right now, I have a room in my house just full of boxes and I don't need to add to that more than necessary). Maybe I'll make some March resolutions. Who knows? What I do know is January is over which means I have some reading stats to share.

Total books read

5

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur

How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur

This is a pretty good book to start the year with, right? This is a good goal. I also read this book last January, so who knows, maybe this is a good New Year / Be Good reminder. A primer to moral philosophy, told in a very accessible way by the guy that created (among other things) The Good Place which is one of my fav TV shows.

Rating: 5 stars

How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Hendrix has really become a go-to author for me. I have learned not to get lulled into a false sense of security when the premise sounds ridiculous because I know that even with a silly sounding plot, the story will be truly scary and touching. This time Louise has to travel home after both her parents die suddenly to deal with the family home. She and her estranged brother will need to work together the clean the house of all of their mom's puppets and dolls. But something is off with the house and is Louise sure those dolls aren't moving? Very creepy story about sibling relationships and family secrets.

Rating: 4 stars

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena

A nine-year old girl goes missing in an otherwise safe suburb and what could have happened to the girl. True the father came home early the afternoon the girl went missing, after the affair he was having ended badly and lost his temper when he saw her there after getting in trouble in school again. But what really happened? The story is told through multiple points of view and it seems that no one is really being totally truthful about what happened, what they know, what they suspect. The first half of the story was much stronger for me but as more and more of the mystery got answered, honestly, the less and less interested I was in the story, which really feels like the opposite of how that should go. 

Rating: 3 stars

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

Another book in the Hawthorne/Horowitz series. This time there's a murder on a remote island at a literary festival (a small literary festival). The island is on lockdown as they (and by they, really Hawthorne though it's fun that Horowitz tries) to solve the murder. These books are fun. Hawthorne has a lot of tropes you'd expect from a super smart detective and watching all of the new ways he exasperates Horowitz is a good time. Bonus is that my library seems to have the books with little to no wait so also a key reason I've already finished 3 in the series.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

The story of Medusa. The story of Perseus. The story of Athena. Their stories are all intertwined, so of course you can't have one without the other. The story about who is a monster and who is a hero. A story about wrongs done to young women and the young women who are punished for having been wronged. Haynes has multiple narrators (Medusa sure, and Athena but other gods and demigods and titans and a crow and an olive tree and many more) but she manages to keep everyone straight, the narrators serve their purpose (yes, even the olive tree). The story has humor and cruelty and even when you know where the story is going, you hope that this time maybe things will turn out differently. 

Rating: 4.25 stars

Pages read

1,830

Fiction

80%

Female authors

40%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

40%

Reread

20%

Book club

20%

Book format

audiobook - 100%

Where'd I get the book

Library: 60%

Gift: 40%

Decade published

2020s: 100%

Resolution books

60%

Everyone Here is Lying is by a Canadian author

A Line to Kill and Stone Blind are both by UK authors

My Favorite Reads of 2023

Another year gone by, another post to reflect on my favorite books for the year. Some were new. Some were rereads. A lot of rereads. Considering I'm also starting 2024 with a reread (one of the ones below!) seems like I'm starting the year off right.

Top New (to me) Reads

 

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur

Top Rereads

 

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

World War Z by Max Brooks

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 

2023 Year End Stats

I may not get many real blog posts done, but you can always count on me for some stats posts. (Somehow this will end up being my last stats post because I've said this. Oh the universe, how it likes its jokes.)

2023 was a busy year for me. We moved the end of 2022 after deciding we needed more space, particularly outdoor space, than our townhouse offered. We figured we'd rent a place for a year (not even a year) and then buy something else. HAHAHA said the housing market. We weren't able to stay in our other rental for another year and with the little one starting kindy, we didn't want a move to mean he'd have to change schools mid-year. So instead we moved over the summer to another rental, right down the street from our old townhouse. We're still in boxes and we're going into another year with most of my books packed away. Books, how I miss you.

I also had lots of work stuff happen, some of which I alluded to even in the last year end wrap up. But basically the business I work on was being sold off which meant once the sale happened I wouldn't have a job. There were a lot of questions of what to do, what's the next move, a lot of very difficult decisions but I started a new job in November and so far all is going well there. It's nice to not have this unknown sitting over me as it had been for the past year and a half but it's been a lot.

And then there's the reading. 2023 started out really strong. Will 2024 be the same? Who knows! I certainly don't!

I still don't have a fancy infographic for the stats. I could make some graphs but honestly, it would be a lot of work and things wouldn't format the way I wanted them to (like they would in a fancy infographic) in here and I'm already getting tired thinking of doing that. So it'll be a list. But I will do some comparisons to my historic averages (2013-2022). And BTW I've now officially tracked my reading for 10 years and that is making me feel old. I mean, that and a bouncer looking at my friends and I and waving off any need to see ID. 

Total books read

61

This is the most I've read in the last 10 years. I dunno why. Can I do it again? 

Also Goodreads says it's only 60 and I dunno what book is missing and I don't feel like cross checking. I will say I trust my sheet better mostly cos I'm better at keeping up with that.

Historic average: 52.8

Year with the most books: 2023 (I just said that) / Year with the fewest books: 2016 & 2018 (48 books)

Total pages read

19,144

This may have been the most books, but 2013 still wins for the most pages. (Thanks Under the Dome, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and A Clash of Kings.)

Historic average: 17,620

Year with the most pages: 2013 (21,681) / Year with the fewest pages: 2018 (13,525)

Month with the most / fewest books read

March (8 books) /July (3 books)

Historic average: every month averages either 4 or 5 books EXCEPT for July which now averages 3. I dunno what it is about the summer. but apparently it's vacation time from everything, including reading

Month with most / fewest pages read

March (2,435) / July (889)

Historic average: September (1,692) / May (1,279)

Fiction

69%

Historic average: 59.8%

BIPOC authors

23%

Historic average: 18.2%

Female authors

61%

Historic average: 57.5%

Author's nationality

US: 61% (Historic average: 68.2%)

UK: 25% (Historic average: 19.9%)

Australia: 5% (Historic average: 1.7%)

Ireland: 3% (Historic average: 0.4%)

Singapore: 3% (Historic average: 1.5%)

China: 2% (Historic average: new country - apparently it's been over 10 years since I last read a book by a Chinese author)

Japan: 2% (Historic average: 1.5%)

Translation

0%

Historic average: 4%

Rereads

16%

Historic average: 19% 

Book format

audiobook: 85% (Historic average: 40.4%)

ebook: 10% (Historic average: 29.4%)

paperback: 3% (Historic average: 26.2%)

hardback: 2% (Historic average: 4.2%)

Where'd I get the book

Library: 69% (Historic average: 24.6%)

Kindle/Audible: 18% (Historic average: 36.0%)

Gift: 11% (Historic average: 8.7%)

Indie: 2% (Historic average: 17.2%)

Decade published

1890s: 2% (Historic average: new decade!)

2000s: 5% (Historic average: 16.1%)

2010s: 34% (Historic average: 58.1%)

2020s: 59% (Historic average: 10.2%)

Top Genres

Mystery: 25% (Historic average: 10.2%)

Literary Fiction: 16% (Historic average: 9.8%)

History: 11% (Historic average: 4.4%)

Rom com: 8% (Historic average: 3.8%)

Memoir: 7% (Historic average: 6.8%)

Resolution books

54%

Historic average: 48%

December+ Reading Wrap Up

Last wrap up of the year. Crazy right? I started with very optimistic intentions for this blog this year but that didn't quite pan out. Though perhaps I'll save that for the year end round up.

December was a slower month for me, reading-wise. There was a lot going on and in general I feel like i had less time for reading and even with (or perhaps because) that time was more limited I listened to podcasts or Xmas music instead of books because those are easier to dip in and out of for extended periods or to not have to worry about giving full attention. 

I also had a brief worry where my library switched systems and thus I had to resign into my Libby account. But that took some time AND when I got signed out I lost all of my library holds. SIIIIIIGH back to the end of the line.

But the good news is the new library set up means many more books are available and they finally got a copy of Homicide and Halo Halo, which is the second cozy mystery book in the series starting with Arsenic and Adobo (they've had the third book for ages which is not especially helpful) and I was able to pick it up exactly 1 year after I finished the first book. So that was fun.

Anyway, here's what December looked like

Total books read

4

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free by Linda Kay Klein

Homicide and Halo Halo by Mia P. Manasala

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

I just wanted a simple, engaging murder mystery and there was a lot that my library didn't have when I stumbled on this book. I had read one Horowitz before (Magpie Murders) which was fine. Not my fav but. I figured I'd give something else a try. This is the first in a series with a gruff former-detective-turned-consulting-detective (Hawthorne) and the guy he partners with to write a book about his case (in a meta turn, Horowitz himself). Hawthorne is all of the tropes from a Sherlock character you'd expect: brilliant, blunt, kind of an oddball. He's brought into a case where a woman planned her funeral that morning and was murdered that evening. That'll draw you in. Horowitz is the reluctant writer who finds himself intrigued by the case and endlessly frustrated by Hawthorne. But he agrees to stay on, following the detective around as they detect and try to figure out who is responsible. The plot is ultimately a bit silly but what murder mystery plot isn't? And this was fun enough that I started in on the second book in the series immediately, and not only because it was available.

Rating: 4 stars

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Hawthorne and his ghost writer Horowitz at it again to solve another murder the regular police force can't seem to figure out. This time the victim is a well-known divorce lawyer who was bashed in the head with an expensive bottle of wine. Wine that the guy didn't drink. His last heard words were "You shouldn't be here. It's too late..." There's a message scrawled on the wall. From the killer? From the victim? Who knows? More kind-of-silly-but-that's-fine murder plot stuff, more frustrations for Horowitz from Hawthorne and the lead detective on the case who doesn't approve of a PI being brought in. I'm sure I'll read more in the series (is there more)? 

Rating: 3.75 stars

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free by Linda Kay Klein

Quite the title, right? Klein dives into the sexual shame she and many women that she grew up with felt. She talks to these women about the ways purity culture affected them as young girls and what it meant for them as they were growing up. Why did she feel the need to take multiple pregnancy tests despite the fact that she was a virgin? What did the guilt and shame do to these women as they got older? Why is it the woman's job to make sure that the man doesn't "stray" by seeing a rogue knee? The book was strongest when Klein was focused on herself and what she was going through. Not to say the interviews shouldn't have been there, but it felt like Klein inserted herself too much in those interviews (sharing her reaction to the things the women shared, setting the scene with what food they were eating, what the seating was like) that weakened these pieces. It's an important topic but could have used some more editing.

Rating: 3.25 stars

Homicide and Halo Halo by Mia P. Manasala

Like I said in the intro, it had been a year since I'd been back to the Tita Rosie's Kitchen series and I did have to read some summaries of what happened in Arsenic and Adobo to remind me where I had left off. This book doesn't spend too much time rehashing events of previous book, which I appreciated (it feels so forced whenever the second book in a series does this) even if that reminder would have been helpful. But no matter. It's a few months after those events and Lila is working with her friends to get their cafe set up while also stepping in as a judge for a Miss Teen beauty pageant (of which she is a former winner). But when one of the judges from a prominent family is murdered, suspicions turn to Lila's cousin Bernadette, who she's always had a bit of a rocky relationship with. Can Lila help solve this murder and clear her cousin? And in between try out many delicious recipes to make sure her cafe gets off the ground? Oh and also, maybe deal with some of that PTSD she's dealing with after the first book? Perfect story for this time of year when I want something to draw me in without making me work too hard. And all of the food sounded so good

Rating: 4 stars

Pages read

1,393

Fiction

75%

Female authors

50%

BIPOC authors

25%

US authors

50%

Book format

audiobook - 100%

Where'd I get the book?

Library - 100%

Decade published

2010s: 75%

2020s: 25%

Resolution books

75%

Both of the Hawthorne and Horowitz books are by a UK author

Homicide and Halo Halo is by a Filipino-American author