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2019 Books

January 13th, 2020 by pladd

I read 315 books in 2019, so I’m going to just do one wrap up post instead of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of previous years. Here’s the genre breakdown:

Best Fiction: The Dead Queen’s Club by Hannah Capin

This is a modern day YA retelling of Henry VIII set in a high school and it goes so much harder than you would ever expect. PEOPLE DIE, okay. A lot more historical references than I expected; I loved it. I wasn’t the only one either: it made NPR’s Best of 2019 list!

Best Nonfiction: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

I read this book back in June, but I still think about it all the time. The medical chapters, especially, are infuriating, but I can see the evidence all around me.

Best Fantasy: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Hard call between this and Return of the King, but I think I enjoyed this more because it was stories I didn’t already know. I read a lot of good fantasy this year, but it’s pretty hard to compete with the defining work of the genre. Plus, The Silmarillion has a surprising amount of badass lady stories.

Best Historical: The entire Clash of Eagles trilogy by Alan Smale

Is it cheating picking an alt history series for “best historical fiction”? I don’t even care; this was way more interesting and well-researched than any other historical novel I read this year. It takes place in the 1200s, when the Roman Empire, which never fell, tries to invade North America, and gets its ass handed to it by the Native Americans, specifically the Mississippian mound builders of Cahokia.

Best Cover: The Tea Dragon Society by Kate O’Neill

This book (and its sequel) are so adorable and imaginative! I love the art and, of course, all the tea.

Worst Cover: A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill

I read this for a book club whose theme was “terrible cover” and I found it by googling “romance novels with bad covers”. It was also a fairly ridiculous book, about an angel and a mermaid finding love despite what should be insurmountable physical and environmental problems. Luckily she can shape change. As you do. Steven refers to this as “the mermangel book” and it prompted me to go to book club in costume:

I would say that’s me set for Halloween, but you know I could never compile just ONE costume a year

Worst Book: Dying to Decorate by Cyndy Salzmann

This book definitely suffered from the expectations it built based on the cover and title. DYING to Decorate?? Clearly this is some kind of interior decorator-themed murder mystery, right? NO! NO ONE DIES! There isn’t even a mystery! A group of moms renovate an old house, remind each other about Civil War history facts, and debate whether the Underground Railroad was a good thing because “slavery was wrong, but so is disobeying the law”. BIG YIKES, Cyndy.

Anyway, it was a good year in books, overall. Here are some more charts because I keep a book spreadsheet that just spits them out for me anyway:

All the half-star spots are blank because I DON’T DO THINGS BY HALF MEASURES, okay

To the surprise of literally no one, the majority of my books come from the library. The “Free” category is mostly Project Gutenberg, and “Owned before 2019” is so popular because I specifically had to read at least one of those a month as part of my goals. Most of them were Steven’s about Ancient Rome.

I read a total of 4 books over 700 pages: a guidebook to Japan I got at the library book sale (904), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (827), The Histories by Herodotus (716), and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1474).

The percent of digital books seems high to me, but I suppose I usually have at least one checked out on Libby from the library for reading when I’m waiting somewhere.

I don’t know what happened in March, but the August-September lull is definitely when I was trying to finish A Suitable Boy, the nearly 1500-page monster.

I wasn’t especially trying to read mostly female authors, but I’m pleased with this result.

Excited for another year in books! If you too would like a bunch of ridic charts about your reading, check out Book Riot’s Reading spreadsheet. I’m never looking back.

Previously: 2018 in books

Tagged: 2019 books, books, charts

Posted in Book Reviews |

50 States of Reading

December 23rd, 2019 by pladd

This year I decided to read a book set in each state. And I did! Here is the genre breakdown:

My selection process was not especially intense. I mainly searched the library catalog for the state and chose from what was available, heavily biased towards ebooks I could download to my phone. I tried to only read fiction, but ended up with memoirs twice (Hawaii and Utah) when they seemed like the best option by far. Here’s my Goodreads rating breakdown:

It definitely skews lower than my overall Goodreads ratings. Let’s face it, I wouldn’t have read the vast majority of these books if not for this project. In the list below I include the average rating on Goodreads in parentheses next to my reading. As you can see, I didn’t like the romance novels as much as the majority of their other readers. The book descriptions are straight publisher’s copy so don’t blame me for how cheesy some of them sound. I’m also including whatever review I wrote on Goodreads at the time, primarily because I’ve forgotten a lot about some of the duller books I read towards the beginning. Unfortunately, I tend not to write detailed reviews unless I really hated something! Here are the books, in alphabetic order by state:

Alabama
Book: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 (4.28)
Description: It’s first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women—of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I really liked this: the way it was written, the way it was structured, and the characters were all really engaging. Definitely not what I was expecting, in a good way!

Alaska
Book: Alaskan Holiday by Debbie Macomber
Genre: Romance
Rating: 2 (3.58)
Description: Before beginning her new job as sous chef at one of Seattle’s finest restaurants, Josie Stewart takes on a six-month position cooking at a lodge in an Alaskan lake town. It’s only temporary–or so she thinks, as she becomes a valued part of the local community, falling in love with the people who call the Klutina Lake home. But one man, in particular, stands out among Josie’s new friends: Palmer Saxon, a quiet, intense sword craftsman, whose very existence forces her to question whether her heart wants to return to Washington at all.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I don’t know, maybe I’ve read so many of these for this project that my standards have changed, but this didn’t seem AS ridiculous as I was hoping from the premise.

Arizona
Book: Breathless (Old West #2) by Beverly Jenkins
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3 (4.15)
Description: A strong-willed beauty finds herself in the arms of the handsome drifter from her past, in this second book in the sizzling series set in the Old West, from USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I thought the pacing of this was a little weird, but I really liked the intersectional feminism.

Arkansas
Book: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 (4.09)
Description: Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at “the old home place,” a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. The children embrace the reunion as a welcome escape from the prying eyes of their father’s congregation; for Willadee it’s a precious opportunity to spend time with her mother and father, Calla and John. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core: John’s untimely death and, soon after, the loss of Samuel’s parish, which set the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would from reading the description. It was well-written, and even though it was set in rural Arkansas, certain parts definitely reminded me of visiting my own grandparents in rural Tennessee.

California
Book: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2 (3.52)
Description: For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I liked the unconventional format of this, but I saw the twist coming from the very beginning so the supposed suspense seemed tiresome. Plus, I kind of loathed the main character.

Colorado
Book: Angel’s Rest (Eternity Springs #1) by Emily March
Genre: Romance
Rating: 1 (4.03)
Description: Gabriel Callahan has lost everything that mattered. All he wants is solitude on an isolated mountain estate. Instead, he gets a neighbor. Vibrant, no-nonsense Nic Sullivan is Eternity Springs’ veterinarian, and she has an uncanny plan to lure this talented architect back to the world of the living. First with a dog, next with a renovation project, and, finally, with a night of passion that ends with a surprise.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: At first I was pleasantly surprised that this book decided to deal with PTSD a little more realistically than typical romance novels, in that sex didn’t ~magically~ cure it. But realistic trauma recovery is not really what I’m looking for in a romance novel, so it wasn’t enjoyable at all. Also, the hero is a huge asshole who uses his mental health as an excuse to treat everyone around him like crap. Not hot.

Connecticut
Book: The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3 (2.91)
Description: Betty Weissmann has just been dumped by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled from her elegant New York apartment by her husband’s mistress, she and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. In Schine’s playful and devoted homage to Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” the impulsive sister is Miranda, a literary agent entangled in a series of scandals, and the more pragmatic sister is Annie, a library director, who feels compelled to move in and watch over her capricious mother and sister.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This book was fine, but forgettable.

Delaware
Book: Hope Never Dies (Obama Biden Mysteries #1) by Andrew Shaffer
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4 (3.51)
Description: Part noir thriller and part bromance novel, Hope Never Dies is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fanfiction
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This was a quick read, and pretty funny. It delivered on the promise of its cover.

Florida
Book: Florida by Lauren Goff
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2 (3.78)
Description: The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This book let me down hard. A better title would be “Stories that are tangentially related to Florida”. A few of them reminded me of home, and a few descriptions were really on point, but mostly I was bored and wondering why so many of them were set in France. Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: 2019 books, 50 states, books

Posted in Book Reviews |

2019 Goals: January

January 31st, 2019 by pladd

The theme for my 2019 goals is “Aim Low” after what happened last year. This year you’ll notice that most of them can be accomplished from my bed lol and that is BY DESIGN

1. Cookbooks Cook Through: 23%
This is the stretch goal. On New Year’s Day, Steven and I went through our cookbooks and marked all the recipes we’d never made but wanted to try this year. In all, it was 29 books, and I marked 70 recipes. Steven marked 215 lol. So far I’ve made 16 recipes (see below) and he’s made 11 (5.12% complete).

You can probably guess that Steven’s are yellow and mine are pink

2. 50 States of Reading: 31%
This is a project I actually started in 2018: Read a book set in each US state. I’m doing it like a legit road trip where I started in Maine and headed South. Here’s the map of what I’ve done so far:

I also stopped in Washington, DC because I’m into the DC Statehood Movement

And here are the books I’ve read:

3. Read One Book a Month We Already Own: 8%
We own a lot of books I’ve never read, mostly because Steven. So I forsee a lot of really bad sci-fi in my future. But in January I found one I’d gotten at a past library book sale!

A History of Histories by John Burrow

It wasn’t as good as I was hoping, but whatever.

4. Transcribe my Grandmother’s Diaries: 37%
My grandmother kept a diary for SIXTY YEARS, y’all, (1941-2000) and this year I’m going to transcribe them all. Right now I’m in 1963. No thoughts on the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I do have a window into how much time our foremothers spent ironing (hint: A WHOLE HECKIN LOT). Here’s a sample entry from An Historic Day:

August 14, 1945. Stayed here and did work all day. Went town at noon and bought suit. War over at 4:00PM

5. Take a Picture of Everything I Make: 100%
Last year I had all these goals that involved making things but never had photographic evidence. No longer! Here’s everything I made in January:

Mostly baked goods, I guess

Total: 40%
Not bad for January!

Tagged: 2019 goals, books, things I've made

Posted in Uncategorized |

2018 Goals: 2/3 of the Way There???

August 26th, 2018 by pladd

I didn’t make a post halfway through the year about my goals like I normally do, but time is a meaningless human construct, so I’m making one now.

1. Hike every trail in Umstead Park: 43%

I haven’t done much this summer since it’s been so hot, but I plan on getting back into hiking in a big way once it cools down a little.

I also hiked about 5 miles of trails I’d previously hiked since my last update, including this spot

2. Learn to juggle: 10%
Literally have not practiced this since the last time I updated. It’s a shame because I really would like to be a person who knows how to juggle, but not sure I’m going to achieve it at my current rate.

3. Review every book I read on GoodReads: 100%
I’ve gotten into a routine with this now, so I’m pretty confident this is a thing I will not only complete with 100% this year, but continue even after 2018. I’ve read and reviewed 129 books so far this year, average star rating: 3.29.

4. Send everyone in my penpal club a birthday postcard: 58%
I gave this up after July. Even with the restrictions I put on it, it was too much to keep track of and too much for postage. Overall I sent out 184 postcards, though!

5. Give to a different charity every month: 67%
This one I have kept up with, but I have also been counting a few things that maybe weren’t official 501C3s and just me helping out people. But whatever, I’m following THE SPIRIT of the goal if not the letter. Some notable charities I have given to in the past few months are: Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, who have THE BEST facebook page of happy senior dogs living their lives, and RUFF animal rescue, where we got Olivia!

Can’t put a price on that

6. Cook or discard everything in my recipe binder: 91%
I have tossed a lot of these that sounded good but that in reality I’m never going to make. Like homemade pita bread, for instance. Why? When I live so close to Neomonde Mediterranean Bakery? It’s good to be realistic about these things.

7. Make Pageapalooza a success!: 100%!
It rained for most of the day, but that actually meant it wasn’t as hot. We still had a cornhole tournament, trivia contest, too much food, and a rad cake.

Publix Bakery knows what’s up

Plus awesome t-shirts!

Shout out to James Fox for the awesome design!

The t-shirts were definitely the most successful. The shift I’m on wears them every Thursday for page solidarity.

Total: 67%

Kind of surprising considering how many I’ve already given up on!

Previously: Quarter Quell

Tagged: 2018 goals, books, hiking, James Fox, olivia

Posted in 2018 Goals |

Final 2016 Goal Update!

January 2nd, 2017 by pladd

Time to wrap up 2016 with a report on my yearly goals! I did pretty well this year with a total of 96%. There was only one goal I didn’t complete!

1. Cook every recipe in Sally’s Baking Addiction: 100%

The final recipe was crepes!

Not perfect, but I’ll take it

I would say out of everything I baked, my favorite had to be the homemade granola. It’s so easy, and so much more delicious than store-bought. Here’s the recipe for you:

Maple Pecan Granola
Prep Time: 5 min
Total time: 50 min plus cooling
Makes: 2-3 cups
Ingredients
2 cups (160g) old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup (165g) pure maple syrup (one time I ran out and used honey!)
1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
3/4 cup (105g) chopped pecans
2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients and stir until all oats are moistened.
3. Spread onto baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

2. Finish all 2014 Goals: 100%
The only thing I had left on our last update was the fancy drinks!
2a) Read T-Z in Brewer’s: 100%
2b) Make 7 pies: 100%
2c) Make a fancy drink every month: 100%
Every drink I made in the last three months has been great! In October I made a fancy crock pot apple cider with apricot nectar for my book club. It was so great I made it again at Christmas! I tried another vanilla apple cider in November, but decided the first one was better. And then in December I made spicy crock pot hot chocolate and my book club loooooved it. I have made it at least three more times since because so do I. It’s from a book I got at the library called Slow Cooker Family Favorites by Maggie Shi.

Spicy Hot Chocolate
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
7 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Put everything in the slow cooker and whisk together. Cover and cook on low for 2 to 3 hours or until the chocolate has melted. Stir occasionally during that time.

2d) Get everything then on my to-read list off it: 100%
Of course, my to-read list now has 389 books on it, but whatever.
2e) Update my blog 7 times: 1005

3. Finish all my Craftsy Classes: 80%
This is the one I failed at. When we last talked, I only had Continental Style knitting to go. I gave it a shot but it was so awkward and frustrating I gave up. Maybe I’ll give it another shot at some point in the future.

4. Complete a temperature scarf: 100%!!
This is probably the goal I’m most proud of!! Here it is:

I haven’t woven in the ends yet, so eventually those will be gone. You can tell that summer was a lot more one note than winter on both sides. I averaged the highs and lows to get each day’s temperature. Here’s the color key:

Orange=80s
Yellow=70s
Green=60s
Turquoise=50s
Blue=40s
Purple=30s
White=20s

I was going to use Red for an average in the 90s but somehow the average never got there. Ditto black for lower than 20.

5. Read one book a month someone else recommended to me: 100%
I’m pleased to say that three of the books from this project made it onto my Best Books of 2016 list! In October I read this book recommended by a library coworker:

Rat Fucked by David Daley

This book was really interesting and also sad. It had a big chapter on North Carolina, since we’re one of the most (the most?) gerrymandered states. Check out my district, friends:

North Carolina’s 4th. Designed by a computer to cram as many democrats in as possible so as not to pollute our surroundings

Which isn’t as bad as District 12:

Ta Da! What the fuck

In November I read this book recommended by another coworker/friend:

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach

This one got 5 stars from me! I don’t normally go for heavy sci-fi space adventures, but I really enjoyed this one about a mercenary working on a cargo ship that’s ~not what it seems~

In December I read this book recommended by Rob!:

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Rob often likes really angsty books so I was wary, but I really liked the voices of the main characters. They felt really honest and real. This one also got 5 stars.

Steven has vowed not to make goals for 2017 because he hated these quarterly reminders of his own failure. Here it is one last time!
1. Cook one vegetarian meal a week
“I was doing pretty good for a while there, and then I think I forgot. I still do it, but not on a regular basis.”
2. Learn a new violin piece once a month
“Yeah, I haven’t hardly picked up the violin outside of orchestra. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
3. Finish all Craftsy classes
“No way. Nowhere near. I did finally get through the knife skills class I was putting off. It was useful.”
4. Make at least one bag out of leather
“I feel kind of bad about that one. I kept thinking about it, planning out different things in my head, and then never… I got distracted with Christmas presents actually.”

Previously: Goals 2016: Home Stretch

Tagged: 2016 goals, books, Steven

Posted in 2016 Fabulous Five |

2016 Books: The Ugly

January 2nd, 2017 by pladd

Here are my picks for ugliest book covers of the year (out of ones I read). I put a * next to the ones that were also on my 2016 Books: The Bad list. Rocking it with all the bad awards!!!

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
As boring as it can get, really

Over Easy by Mimi Pond
I expected more from this graphic novel

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach
If this book hadn’t been recommended to me, the cover would have turned me away. I’m not into technical specs about your space ship.

*Feeling Lucky by Kathy Bryson
Dude is still wearing a shirt? What kind of romance novel cover is this?

*American Werechaun in Dublin by Andy Click
Blah

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
This book was considered downright SALACIOUS in its time, so I feel like this cover could try harder.

Ratfucked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy by David Daley
This book was really interesting, but its cover isn’t doing anything for it.

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein
Those bangs, oh god

The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young
It took me a stupid amount of time to realize that those are trees. Why are they sideways?

*To Catch an Heiress by Julia Quinn
Rose clip art. Not even trying.

*The Warlord by Elizabeth Elliott
At least he’s not wearing a shirt, but the luscious flowing locks aren’t really doing it for me.

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
This looks like a children’s book not an angsty novel set in a winery

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
You can do better

*Cosmic Sex by Karen Kelley
He looks stoned

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
This cover makes my teeth itch

Pogue’s Basics by David Pogue
Boring

*Kana’s Quest by Anthony Ray Olheiser
Homemade

The Girls by Emma Cline
Eh

*The Eyes of the Arab Boy by R Lamirand
I hate everything about you

Previously: 2016 Books: The Bad
Next: 2016 Books: The Pretty

Tagged: 2016 books, books

Posted in Book Reviews |

2016 Books: The Bad

January 1st, 2017 by pladd

This year I rated 11 books 1 star on GoodReads. Here they are:

It was a tough call on Worst Book of 2016. But I’m going with Looking for Alaska, mostly because of how critically and socially acclaimed it is. That raises expectations pretty high (unlike most of the other books here, which I expected to be terrible), so when it sucked it felt worse.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
I read this for Banned Books Week. Here’s my full review of why it sucks.

Library Book Sale Trash

The Warlord by Elizabeth Elliot
A romance novel I got for 20 cents at the library book sale. It’s about a dude in 12th cent. Scotland marrying a girl to save her from her evil step father. And then they find love.

To Catch an Heiress by Julia Quinn
In this crappy romance novel, an English lord/AGENT OF THE CROWN kidnaps the wrong girl because he thinks she’s a Spanish spy. Then they find love.

Cosmic Sex by Karen Kelley
Library book sale has a strong representation this year! This book is about aliens landing on earth to discover what these earthmen are like.

Proving a Point to Someone

Feeling Lucky by Kathy Bryson
I read this to prove a friend wrong who thought there weren’t any romance novels about Irish dudes. This is about a woman who “catches” a leprechaun by grabbing his ass and then is entitled to his treasure. He tries to seduce the treasure back. Also in this universe leprechauns are just hot dudes who like money and can dance in mid air because why not.

American Werechaun in Dublin by Andy Click
I read this book for the same reason. It’s about a dude who keeps blacking out at the full moon and waking up with gold coins in his pocket. You know, a werechaun. Eventually he learns to control his powers and brings peace to the warring leprechaun and werechaun communities.

Kana’s Quest by Anthony Ray Olheiser
I read this when James Fox challenged me to read a knock-off Lord of the Rings book. It’s about the war between angels and Satan and involves some angel/human romance. It’s completely insane.

Passion and Ponies by Tara Sivec
This book is about a woman deciding she can overlook her Friend With Benefits brony tendencies and upgrade him to Boyfriend status.

Hate Book Club

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
I read this for Hate Book Club, full review here.

The Eyes of the Arab Boy by Rod Lamirand
This was another Hate Book Club selection, famous for the author himself volunteering it. Full review here.

Just Randomly Bad

The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver
This book was about a dramatic car accident that killed one twin while injuring the other and everyone mistakes the one that lived for the one that died. And now she’s just pretending to be her sister?? Forever?? It’s really dumb.

The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb
This book had a promising description: creepy house, family secrets, MURDER. But it was badly written.

Previously: 2016 Books: The Good
Next: 2016 Books: The Ugly

Tagged: 2016, 2016 books, books

Posted in Book Reviews |

2016 Books: The Good

December 31st, 2016 by pladd

In total this year, I read 129 books! That’s 38,293 pages! According to GoodReads. I only gave five stars on GoodReads to 27 of them (about 21%). Also 3 of them were recommended to me by other people as part of my Recommended Books project! Good job, friends!

This is the one I’m choosing as my Favorite Book of 2016, mostly because I haven’t stopped thinking about it, even though I read it near the beginning of this year. The story was so imaginative and the illustrations were awesome.

The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
This grahpic novel is BEAUTIFUL and so imaginative. It’s a story set thousands of years ago about an explorer from one of the poles, traveling in a canoe to different places, facing monsters and hostile civilizations, to find his True Love, who lives at the other pole. The illustrations are so great.

Other Graphic Novels

Lumberjanes Volumes 3- 4 by Noelle Stevenson

I can never get enough of these hardcore, more badass girl scouts. This time they fight an ancient demigod monster that lives in the mountain near their camp.

Princeless Volumes 1-3 by Jeremy Whitley
A princess trapped in a tower makes a deal with the dragon guarding her, and the two go off to rescue all the other trapped princesses! It’s so badass and amazing!!

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Daaaaang this graphic novel starts subtly creepy and ends TERRIFYING

Tomboy by Liz Prince
This is a graphic novel memoir about not fitting in to society’s gender roles, so you know I’m there. #tomboysolidarity

YA and children’s fiction

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
This book was about a fat girl entering her town’s teen beauty pageant with a bunch of other high school social outcasts to make a statement. I really liked its message and identified with the main character #fatgirlsolidarity

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
This book was rad. The main character lives on her dad’s magical ship that can travel to anywhere that’s been mapped. Anywhere. Ancient China. El Dorado. Modern day New York. 1800s Hawaii. It’s nautical time travel fantasy with cool maps.

The Whisper (Riverman Trilogy, #2) by Aaron Starmer

It’s weird that, of this trilogy, this middle one is the only book to get 5 stars. The story is about the worlds you create in your imagination as a child, and those worlds being very much real and connected. This second book is a search through the various interconnected worlds of different imaginations on a hunt for a best friend and a villain.

Augie and the Green Knight by Zach Weiner
This book is an adorable and sassy retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight featuring amazing illustrations!

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
A Recommended Book! This one was set in Florida and featured angsty teens, but the narration wasn’t over-the-top and annoying COUGHJohnGreenCOUGH.

Adult Fiction

Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age (The Last Hundred Years trilogy) by Jane Smiley
I devoured this series that follows one family through 100 years. Each chapter is about the next year. A little history, a little future speculation, a lot of family drama. It reminded me of Edward Rutherford on a smaller scale.

Re Jane by Patricia Park
A modern version of Jane Eyre where no one has to marry gross Mr. Rochester! And part of it is set in South Korea!

Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE ROMEO AND JULIET!!! In one of the endings you team up with Hamlet‘s Ophelia for epic revenge.

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
An epistolary novel! That’s pretty silly! It has some PTA drama, some international intrigue, and an epic cruise to Antarctica! And a mystery!

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach
Another book from my Recommended Books project! This is a sci-fi novel about a badass lady mercenary working as a security guard on an oddly accident-prone cargo ship. It’s cool to see a book from the point of view of one of the ship grunt’s, doubly so because she’s a woman.

Non-fiction

Things No One Tells Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living by Jes Baker
I’m really into Health at Every Size and body positivity because my past experience has taught me that weight and health might be correlated but don’t have as clear cut a causal relationship as commonly believed. This book is a series of (funny) essays about self-image, dealing with bullies, and living life.

Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein
I really enjoyed Peggy Orenstein’s last book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, and this feels very much like a sequel to it, featuring interviews with teens and college-age girls.

Anything but Ordinary Addie: The True Story of Adelaide Hermann, Queen of Magic by Mara Rockliff
Bet you’ve never heard of this awesome lady magician!! Your loss, because she was awesome.

The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital by Alexandra Robbins
Non-fiction that reads like fiction! I learned a lot of worrying things about healthcare!

Saving Alex: When I was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That’s When My Nightmare Began by Alex Cooper
This book is terrifying, more so because it’s very real. Alex Cooper’s account of her time in “gay conversion therapy” reads like an account of kidnapped and abused child victims except her parents willingly put her there and to this day refuse to believe that was a terrible decision.

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by Timothy Egan
This was part of my Recommended Books project this year! It’s a biography of Thomas Francis Meagher, who was exiled to Tasmania for his part in a failed Great Potato Famine-era Irish revolution, escaped imprisonment, and went on to become governor of Montana-territory!! Another non-fiction book that reads like a novel; I learned a lot.

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer
A non-fiction book about little-known destinations around the world!!

Previously: 2015: The Good
Next: 2016: The Bad

Tagged: 2016, books

Posted in Book Reviews |