I did a summary of my 2018 reading but I haven’t shared reviews of the books I’ve finished for about a month now. Without further delay, here they are:

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Absurd and farcical and way too long, I struggled to finish this one but I was curious enough to want to know how it all turned out. It’s like a mash up of Forest Gump, A Man Called Ove, and Big Fish. There are parts that are funny and the intermingling of historical events and leaders is clever but overall this just wasn’t the right book for me.

 

Circe by Madeline Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m not especially familiar with mythology and hesitated to read this book despite how much everyone loved it. I decided to give it a go and I’m so glad I did. It’s fabulous, with strong characters (especially female ones), beautiful descriptions, and a truly compelling story. It’s all familiar but also different and I highly recommend it.

 

Fox 8 by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Super short but brilliant. Just be “niser” to each other.

 

 

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An easy and entertaining read. Not great literature and utterly predictable but engrossing and worth reading.

 

 

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
My ratin

g: 5 of 5 stars

Weird and wild and probably not for everyone but this book blew my mind.

 

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent true crime book with compelling writing and a fascinating subject. It’s particularly tragic that McNamara died before a suspect was arrested and charged with this crimes from the 1970s and 1980s. Highly recommended for those who enjoy the genre.

 

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The premise of this book is to remember that our country has often experienced times of turmoil and corruption and that (eventually) our better nature has prevailed. It definitely helped to think of those times as I watch the news and see the struggle with the current times.

 

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a truly charming book full of poignant observations on life, aging, friendship, and more. It’s rare for me to make note of specific sentences I love in a book but this one had a few that I just couldn’t resist including: “A long second is when clock hesitates, just for a moment. Just long enough to give you the extra time you need to make the right decision.” While the third thing about Elsie was pretty obvious to me right from the beginning, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. Highly recommended.

I hope you’ve been reading great books and I also hope you’ll tell me about them.

Thank you all for your enthusiastic support of my word, story, for 2019. And speaking of stories, today seems like the perfect day to share my year in books 2018.

The image is long (I used the Stitch It app to create it) but it shows every book I read last year.

It was a great year of reading and I’ve set my goal for 2019 at 75 books once again. I like that it gives me some wiggle room to read longer books (I’m looking at you, Diana Gabaldon) and I’d rather smash this particular goal than set it too high and rush through books just for the sake of checking them off on an arbitrary list.

Have you set a reading goal for 2019? I’d love to hear about it!

Last Saturday Dale and I had the privilege of attending an author talk with Louise Penny, the creator of the fabulous Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. The event was hosted by Titcomb’s Bookshop and the Sandwich Public Library and held at Sandwich High School in a sold out auditorium of 1,000 people.

It was stupendous.

Louise Penny is charming and delightful and very funny.  She described herself as a sloth, loving to lay about and do nothing, which I find to be pretty amazing considering she has now written 14 best selling books set in the idyllic (well, other than those murders that happen) community of Three Pines. She told stories about her childhood and her desire to be a writer because writers create magic, she told stories about her late husband Michael, and she told stories about her real life friends who inspired different characters in the series. It became very clear to me, while listening to her, that Armand Gamache (rhymes with mashed as in potatoes, by the way) is very much modeled after her husband. And the relationship between Armand and Reine-Marie sure seems to be infused with the love that was shared between Louise and Michael.

I think one of the truly beautiful things she said was about Three Pines, commenting on the fact that even though it’s fictional people want to visit it. Louise Penny said that Three Pines is really a state of being and that whenever we are kind to someone instead of cruel, whenever we reach out and make a connection with someone instead of turning away, whenever we act out of friendship and love, we are actually IN Three Pines.

Amazing, right? I was blown away.

Today I’m updating you and sharing the books I’ve read since October 22. It’s slightly less than usual, I think partly because I’ve been knitting more. And also maybe because I was hitting Sims Mobile pretty hard in November. But I’ve been back on track with my reading the last couple of weeks and it’s time to catch you up.

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A very good story of a Jewish family living in Poland during WWII. I liked that it was based on the author’s family and found the different story lines to be interesting (and horrifying) but it was sometimes confusing keeping track of the characters.

 

 

Transcription by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was disappointed with Atkinson’s latest, particularly since I adored Life After Life. This had all the elements to make it great: the backdrop of WW2, quirky British characters, and an intriguing plot. And yet it never really took off for me. I didn’t connect with Juliet and found the timeline to be very choppy and disjointed. Nevertheless, I love Atkinson’s style and her portrayal of the lasting damage of the war on England and her people is brilliant.

 

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book had great potential and an interesting plot but it was just too long with too many characters. I had some issues keeping track of who was who and the jumping around was disjointed, I’d find myself having a hard time remembering where a certain plot point left off when Morton finally got back to the present. After all the details and all the build up the ending felt rushed and I’m particularly annoyed at some of the ambiguity and unanswered questions. This would have been better if it had been about 150 pages shorter, I think. Recommended with reservations for Morton fans.

 

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It’s always hard to give a negative review to a memoir so I’ll preface this by saying that the author writes very well about her childhood experiences and about the murder of a young boy by a child molester. What I have issues with is the connection between the two – I feel that’s forced and used as a means to get the author’s story out there. I’d have had more appreciation, I think, for the author’s story alone.

 

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Do not read this book for plot. Read it for imagery and prose, for character and setting. Interpret the things left ambiguous and just immerse yourself in the hazy memories of childhood, loss, intrigue, and love.

 

 

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Light and easy, a great palate cleanser after a lot of heavy books lately. Recommended for those who enjoyed Practical Magic.

 

Vox by Christina Dalcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The premise is fascinating and terrifying and this should have been a terrific book. But. There is little depth to the characters and the big pay off at the end feels rushed and confused. Read The Handmaid’s Tale instead, it’s a much better book.

 

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is good but I feel like it could have been great if McBride had focused less on the politics and more on the personal.

 

What are you reading right now? I always want to know!