2020 Vision will help with the reading - January Books

[Queen]

Welcome to the new year!

What was your best book(s) for 2019?

Any reading goals for the year?

And of course - what are you reading in January?

[ozziegiraffe]

Thank you Q.
I didn’t quite reach my Good Reads challenge total of 90 this year.

[Liiisa]

Thank you Q! I'd been holding off starting a new book until I could get my hands on Jeff Vandermeer's new novel, "Dead Astronauts," which I got yesterday and so am now reading (currently still trying to figure out wtf is going on, but that's not unusual).

I didn't challenge myself to set any kind of numbers, so 64 is ok.

Looking at last year's list, I see I put stars by ten of them! So maybe I'll start a whole thread. But #1 of all of them was "Ducks, Newburyport."

[scrubb]

Thanks, Q. I have too many books on the go, but the one I'm most actively reading is "Survival in the Shadows: Seven Jews HIdden in Hitler's Berlin" by Barbara Lovenheim.

I'll look at my "best of" for 2019 and wait for Lisa's thread to discuss, but in terms of goals - I was hoping to read 100, and I got to 103. Now I wish it had been 104 because that would have been 2/week. However, that's just a little side goal to my main goal, which is to read more good books. I think I made that one, when I look at how I rated my books this year. I have 6 categories from bad to excellent. This year, only 6 books fell into the "bad or just ok" categories, and 89 books were in the good, very good, and excellent categories.

Note: I'm not defining "good" as "good literature" or "important contribution to society" or anything like that. Just if it's good at what it is, be it chick lit, a mystery, science, biography, or literature.

[ozziegiraffe]

Two light cozy audiobooks from my current road trip to start this year.
1. Deadly Cruise, Dawn Brookes. An excellent cozy to listen to on a road trip. Both the cruise ship and the characters are very well written. Quite a complicated mystery with an interesting, somewhat unexpected, outcome.
2. Poison in Paddington, Samantha Silver. For a short cozy mystery audiobook, just the right length for a four hour road trip, this story packed a lot in. Good descriptions of medical terminology and detective methods.
Both surprisingly good, and the right length for a series of 5-hour road trips.

[scrubb]

1. "Survival in the Shadows: Seven Jews HIdden in Hitler's Berlin" by Barbara Lovenheim.

It was the first book I've read that focused on Jewish people hiding inside Germany, and the people who helped them. While certainly not apologizing for those who informed/turned away instead, it did make the point that there were German people who were against the Nazis and who did what they could to help Jewish people survive, at risk to themselves and their families. There were at least 50 different people who helped this group of 7 people directly with food or shelter or clothes.

It also showed how difficult it was to stay safe - neighbours could inform if anything seemed suspicious; it was difficult to find food; some of them couldn't go to air raid shelters when Berlin was bombed in the last couple of years of the war, for fear of being recognized. Men in particular had to stay inside during the day for fear of being picked up and conscripted into the army, at which point they would have been found out due to being circumsised. They often had to move around and find new places to sleep, when one became too dangerous/compromised. And the people in this book (a family group) only went into hiding in 1943. Two years was hard; it's hard to imagine that they could have all survived if it had been much longer.

The book was written after months (years?) of interviews and working together to ensure that it conveys events as accurately as they could be recalled, and also that it conveys the mood and spirit of the times. The last 2 chapters are written by two of the survivors themselves and they had a somewhat breezy, cheeky tone. Not something to be forgotten, the way those who survived the camps felt. They did realize, when they saw concentration camp survivors, how incredibly fortunate they had been in comparison.

[Oweena]

Me by Elton John
Enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would.
He doesn't sugarcoat that he can be an arsehole, that he has a temper, that he should be dead already due to his drug and alcohol use, and to top it off, he's funny.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Such a great book, her writing is wonderful. The story is a multi-generational one with each chapter told by a different member of an african american family, most of the narrators being female.
It's one of the few books I read over just one afternoon because I found it that good.

[HalcyonDaze]

1. Field Notes on Love - Jennifer E. Smith.
YA novel
A cross country train trip with two teens - Hugo, who wants to escape his family and Mae, who is desparate to get into film school.
Enjoyable enough book.

2 Here and Now and Then - Mike Chen.

A wonderful time travel novel. Kin is a time travelling secret agent from 2142. However he got stuck in San Francisco in the 90s and ends up falling and love, marrying and having a daugther. When his daughter is a teenager a rescue team from his future turn up to take him home. 18 years have passed for Kin - a week has passed in 2142. The books shows the pains he goes through reconciling his leaving his family in 2014 with living in 2142. By trying to keep in touch with his daughter he ends up risking her life and has to work out how to travel back in time to save her.

[lillielangtry]

#1 Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Well, that was quite a start to the year's reading. It's a little difficult to know what to make of this one. It's about a young woman around the start of the millennium who basically decides to check out of life by drugging herself up to the eyeballs and sleeping as much as possible. She's not exactly a likeable person either (she's obviously not supposed to be). It's very well-written, but I also found it quite grim.

[Liiisa]

Jan 5, 2020 11:41:02 GMT -5 lillielangtry said:

#1 Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Well, that was quite a start to the year's reading. It's a little difficult to know what to make of this one. It's about a young woman around the start of the millennium who basically decides to check out of life by drugging herself up to the eyeballs and sleeping as much as possible. She's not exactly a likeable person either (she's obviously not supposed to be). It's very well-written, but I also found it quite grim.

And it was like Jane Austen compared to Moshfegh's short stories!

[mei]

#1 of this year, a quick Dutch read, De Heilige Rita by Tommy Wieringa. A good read, about a man in a small village away from modern life, basically. It felt very melancholy, well written.

[lillielangtry]

Jan 5, 2020 17:02:48 GMT -5 Liiisa said:

Jan 5, 2020 11:41:02 GMT -5 lillielangtry said:

#1 Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Well, that was quite a start to the year's reading. It's a little difficult to know what to make of this one. It's about a young woman around the start of the millennium who basically decides to check out of life by drugging herself up to the eyeballs and sleeping as much as possible. She's not exactly a likeable person either (she's obviously not supposed to be). It's very well-written, but I also found it quite grim.

And it was like Jane Austen compared to Moshfegh's short stories!

Crikey. I'm glad I read it because I've heard a lot about her but I don't think I'll be rushing to look for more.

[sprite]

i'm not bothered by numbers, but i am trying to read more non-fiction, and better fiction than constant murder mysteries. I fear my brain is rotting.

[HalcyonDaze]

I managed only 3 non-fiction books last year. Each year I say I will read more and each year I fail dismally.

Two of the books I read were excellent ranty feminist stuff, so that was good though.

[Oweena]

Jan 6, 2020 16:02:34 GMT -5 sprite said:

i'm not bothered by numbers, but i am trying to read more non-fiction, and better fiction than constant murder mysteries. I fear my brain is rotting.

I'm the opposite, always telling myself to read more fiction and then ending up with more non-ficiton. At least 2 of my fave books from last year were non-fiction. I need to post my list of 2019 faves in that other thread.

[sophie]

The Piano Man’s Daughter by Timothy Findley. This was this month’s choice for my book club; I had read it many years back but couldn’t remember anything about it. At first I had trouble getting into the story. There were too many characters and the story line was tripping all over them. After the halfway mark either my attitude changed or I got into the story because I started to enjoy it. It is a family story, with illegitimate babies back in the time when that sort of thing was a social no no, a bit of madness and family secrets thrown in for good measure.

[Liiisa]

I know I've said this before, but I read nonfiction at night in bed; it has the advantage of never being something where I'm like "oh just one more chapter" and then it's 2:00 a.m. The only problem with that is that some nonfiction puts me to sleep so effectively that it takes months to get through something.

[ozziegiraffe]

Jan 6, 2020 16:02:34 GMT -5 sprite said:

i'm not bothered by numbers, but i am trying to read more non-fiction, and better fiction than constant murder mysteries. I fear my brain is rotting.

I deal with enough serious day to day non-fiction at work, so enjoy light mysteries as an escape. I must analyse what I’ve read this year, but probably wait until I’m back home. I know I read at least one serious feminist book!

[sprite]

yes, i need to do more reading in my field as well!

[scrubb]

Jan 7, 2020 6:14:46 GMT -5 Liiisa said:

I know I've said this before, but I read nonfiction at night in bed; it has the advantage of never being something where I'm like "oh just one more chapter" and then it's 2:00 a.m. The only problem with that is that some nonfiction puts me to sleep so effectively that it takes months to get through something.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to get to sleep earlier on work nights. (I have to get up at 5:00 or 5:30.) My plan is to go brush my teeth and get into bed at 9:30, then read. I think I'll make sure I always have a not-too-exciting non-fiction book available, for if my main read is too gripping!

Right now I'm reading a book about hiking the Kokoda Trail in PNG. The topic is fascinating to me, and the writer has some good background information about the wartime events around the trail - but his description of their hike, and his dialogue, is just bad writing. Sigh.

[Liiisa]

That's disappointing! And yeah, I need to head to start reading in bed at 9:30 too, but too often it's 10:15 (I get up at 5:30 too).

[ozziegiraffe]

Scrubb, if your interest in PNG rather than WWII, Tim Flannery is worth a read. Several books on his adventures as a biologist in the area.
One of his was definitely on my 2019 list, so that’s at least two non-fiction.

[Liiisa]

The following was #64 on my 2019 list, but because it was my Secret Santa present from sophie and had to do with western Canada (which therefore might have given the secret away), I didn't describe it then. So:

Richard Wagamese, Medicine Walk

A 16-year-old First Nations young man who is a highly skilled woodsman and farmer is asked by his alcoholic father to take him out into the mountains in western Canada. On this walk the father reveals important things about his life and the son's life. I won't say anything more, because part of the intensity of the story is about the father's request itself, and the stories and revelations the father tells as they walk into the wilderness.

I found it quite affecting and honest, and the descriptions of nature were wonderful. I occasionally thought the son was maybe a bit too supernaturally talented, but some people are probably like that, if they've grown up in the mountains and are raised by other skilled people. But that aside, both the young man and his father are carefully described characters, with great depth and realization.

Thank you again sophie - this was a great book, which I doubt I ever would have heard about!

[sophie]

Lisa, glad you liked it. Another book of his, Indian Horse, was made into a movie. That book is also very well written; it deals with the effects of residential schools.

[Webs]

I too am about to embark on My Year of Rest and Relaxation, based on the reviews here.

[Liiisa]

Jan 10, 2020 14:55:34 GMT -5 Webs said:

I too am about to embark on My Year of Rest and Relaxation, based on the reviews here.

Interested in hearing your take on it, since she squanders her year of R&R in Manhattan.

[scrubb]

Jan 9, 2020 17:51:25 GMT -5 ozziegiraffe said:

Scrubb, if your interest in PNG rather than WWII, Tim Flannery is worth a read. Several books on his adventures as a biologist in the area.
One of his was definitely on my 2019 list, so that’s at least two non-fiction.

Thanks, ozzieg - I've read "Throwim Way Leg" and really liked it. Not sure why it never occurred to me to check if he wrote more books about the area!

I"m still slogging through the same book - the author mentions at one point that he quit his work to write books full time. I can't imagine that he was very successful, if this is an example. But I carry on because I am learning the WWII history which is interesting.

[sophie]

Scrubb, Jared Diamond (wrote Collapse) is a passionate birder; he has done a lot of field work in PNG. He also wrote a book about kinship and culture there. It is an interesting book.

[sophie]

Another cheap thriller: Blue Moon by Lee Child. Easy read, lots of action and the good guys win. Good book for a brainless night.

[Queen]

I read non-fiction on the train, and fiction at night.

Currently reading something very depressing about the future of technology, and a rather challenging bit of fiction set in Bahrain, and "Confessions of a bookseller" for a laugh.