I've been in a bit of a reading rut and have been asking friends to help me get unstuck. Christine responded by asking me what has worked for me lately to give her a launching point for her suggestions, so I plan on enumerating that below in this post.
(PSA: If you don't want to fall into a reading rut, do not read Cara Wall's The Dearly Beloved. I repeat, do not read this beautiful book by Cara Wall. Everything you read after will just not live up to the beautiful prose and striking descriptions of humans in relationship to others and their faiths. If, after this warning, you choose not to heed my advice, then maybe just follow it up with Vanishing Half, if you haven't read it already, but I'm sure you have, and so I'm sorry.)
(Thankfully, my friend Sharon is here to save us all from book rut despair. When I asked my personal Modern Mrs. Darcy what to call the genre I cannot get enough of, this is what she had to say: "I've been trying to figure this out for myself, and my working category is quiet literary fiction/character studies and family sagas (though there are some family sagas I dislike, like the super dysfunctional ones of which I have read far too many). By quiet I mean that there's very little action that happens, haha, and when I describe it to someone else I feel like a crazy person because there's so little plot progress." YES, YES EXACTLY! She then pointed me to Anne Bogel's recent post for more great books to enjoy. You're welcome.)
Okay, returning back from parathetical land.
Paradoxically, in the midst of this book desert I've been drowning in (sorry for the morbid mixed metaphor), Julia Cameron (of morning pages fame), whose course The Artist's Way I've started working through, instructs in the chapter I'm currently on to take a week of reading deprivation. (Yes, you read that right. No reading anything for a week. I think it's supposed to propel you to create your own work instead of consuming other people's work.)
I'm not sure I can stand to not read for a whole week, but I have not read for the past 8 hours (big whoop, I know) since I read that assignment. The self-imposed inability to not turn to a book to pass time has already created a vacuum for other stuff, such as facing this blog.
Today I will use my extra time to tell you about what I read in 2020.
I've been tracking my reading for two years now. I made a fun bullet journal spread in 2019 and then used Goodreads more in 2020. (Goodreads = great tool, but geez they did not need to be so rude about me not meeting my reading goal last year. "Better luck in 2021" -- really?!)
Here's a pictograph (?) of my 2019 reading:
One thing I'm really proud of is reading more fiction in 2020, increasing my measly 6 in 2019 to 24 in 2020.
Before I get to my a complete list of my 2020 reads at the end of the post, here are a few highlights.
Favorite fiction:
- The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Imma blame Tolstoy for me not meeting my Goodreads goal)
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
- Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Favorite narrative non-fiction:
- Educated by Tara Westover
Favorite non-fiction:
- Burnout by Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
- The Awakened Family by Shefali Tsabary (helpful and challenging enough to me that I'm re-reading this again this year)
Favorite (albeit only) Illustrated Memoir
- The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
I actually listened to an audiobook and enjoyed it:
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
And here's the list in its entirety, in roughly chronological order as I read throughout the year:
Still Life by Louise Penny
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Educated by Tara Westover
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Shrill by Lindy West
A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua
Dear Girls by Ali Wong
Slammed by Colleen Hoover
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan Jobs
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Cozy: The Art of Arranging Yourself in the World by Isabel Gillies
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Little Gods by Meng Jin
Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
Re Jane by Patricia Park
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Anna K by Jenny Lee
There, There by Tommy Orange
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames
The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg
The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Awakened Family by Shefali Tsabary
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
The Rule of One by Ashley Saunders and Leslie Saunders
Please feel free to send me recommendations for my next read and/or wish me "better luck in 2021"!
Also, raise your hand if you, like me (and Stephie and Chris*), slow down when a book is so good, because you don't want it to end, ya weirdo.
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*Maria, feel free to let Chris know his first blog shout-out happened today, although I suppose he doesn't really need to read the post since he already uses your Goodreads account to stalk your friends for book recs.
I love this post! (Also, it is so nice to read your writing again)
ReplyDeleteI'm adding "The Dearly Beloved" and "The Bookish Life of Nina Hill" on my list. In regards to your reading rut - I'm also interested to know which books you've picked up recently that have just not worked for you.
When I find myself in a rut, I often go get a book from my kids' shelf, like "A Wrinkle in Time" or something by E.B. White or Roald Dahl. "Phantom Tollbooth" is one I did during my most recent rut and I got to remember how much I loved it. "The Giver" or "Harriet the Spy" also seem like they would be good contenders.
Some recommendations inspired by your mention of family sagas:
-Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
-Tea girl of Hummingbird Lane (also by Lisa See)
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (sort of a family saga)
-Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Something short and good:
-The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer (based on his TED talk into a book)
-The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
-Keep Going by Austin Kleon
-The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
-Passing by Nella Larsen
My genre I can't get enough of is zoomed in slices filled with rich writing and commentary on the human condition. "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout is a great example of such a genre that I have loved.
And something slightly cheesy, but fun and plot-driven: "Winter Garden" by Kristin Hannah
Christine! Thanks for your lovely recommendations and thoughtful approach in helping me get unstuck. I had been meaning to check out A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Giver, so those are definitely good contenders. I think with how much sadness I am feeling with the world and my own winter struggle, I'm needing books to be slow and deep, with redemption commensurate to the struggle. (And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I am finding palatable books that are light and funny and that go down easy. My friend Sharon recently recommended Last Tang Standing and that was the perfect book to devour during a slow week in January.)
DeleteIn the past couple months, I abandoned The Other's Gold by Elizabeth Ames - ambitious writing and interesting setting and premise, but I felt the drama was slightly contrived and I wasn't really sure what significance/weight I would ultimately be left with.
The Lager Queen of Minnesota is a different example for me; it was a book recommended by two friends who know me well, and so I did push through to the end even though I slowed near the middle, and even had to use audiobook as a "crutch" (not a bad thing; it's just that it's not usually a tool that works for me, but I needed the reader to read to me while I flipped the pages for a chapter or two, just to keep me going). The ending made it worth it for me, but the pace of the book was a little on the slow side for me, which is surprising since I looooove slow. I guess I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working for me when I was going through it. Maybe I just wasn't connected to the characters, or the setting.
Going back to your recommendations, I had started the audio for Olive, Again, but didn't get very far, for various reasons. I wonder if I would like Olive Kitteridge - I had added it to my mental list when you had blogged about it, but it wasn't available at the time and I don't think I added myself to the hold list.