The funny thing about the New Year and books that made my year

The New Year brings on the reflective bits of all of us.  It is an end and a beginning. A time to look back and see what worked, what fell completely apart, what we lost and what we gained.  Even if the scales balance neatly it still ends in a lot of self-questioning.  Relationships made of sterner stuff take us into the new year, though losses of people are felt profoundly, and we often wonder what could have gone differently.  Changes are questioned along with our choices and it is easy to circle in those thoughts.  It is a funny thing that seems to naturally align.  There are gray skies and cool temperatures that seem to beg for this time of internal examination.  We are bundled in deep coats, blankets, various layers. It is the type of buried coziness that brings on stillness and often a pause that reflection requires.

As I look back and reflect on my reading this year, it had some very wonderful surprises and some very questionable valleys.  It was a bizarre year of a lot of reading – 86 books in all – that I cannot put a finger on exactly except in this year I think I needed more introvert time than other years.  I also become very much an Audible fan. For walks with my dog and work travel, that became a respite.  So here are the books that worked well for me and some that didn’t in categories that I feel best reflect my own bizarre reading year.

Books that helped me learn something surprising about myself:

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Neishi Coates
• American Like Me by various authors
• Becoming by Michelle Obama

Books that I want people to read so we can talk about them: 

• The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Gowar
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers
• I’ll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
• True Crime Addict by James Renner
• Circe by Madeline Miller

Books that Broke my Heart:

• Alligator Candy by David Kushner
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Books that are popular for reasons I can’t even imagine and it pains me: 

• Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
• The Girl Stays in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
• Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris
• Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Morairty

Books that had a great Topic but lost a lot in marginal writing: 

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• The Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth
• The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
• The Perfect Nanny by Leili Slimani (this book may have lost in the translation to English)

Books I loved no matter what anyone else thinks: 

• Agatha Raisin books by M.C. Beaton – they save my sanity every time
• The Charles Lenox Mystery Series by Charles Finch
• Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
• All the Ever Afters by Danielle Teller
• Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan
• The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd
• Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry

So we end 2018 and regardless of the reflections and memories that lay heavy on our hearts, I am hopeful that curled up in blankets with a good book all good things will find us.

Happy New Year friends.