2019 Year in Review

In 2019 I read 72 books totaling 23,295 pages. This is a increase from last year when I read 60 books. I feel like I was back on track despite STILL struggling with plantar fasciitis and not being able to run for most of the year. The good news is that my foot is FINALLY feeling better and I'm hoping to be able to run more in 2020. My 2017 breakup with Facebook has lasted all of 2019, so I guess you can say I'm really over "him," but Reading While the Ship Goes Down continued to have an internet presence on Instagram. I started an Instagram story series called #booksandreading where I take my travelling self to a local brewery and read at the bar, mostly by myself which is how it's supposed to work. If you haven't given followed the Blog's Insta page yet, go check it out. It's mostly pictures of my books. Bookstagram is the best kind of Instagram.

My average rating was 3.8 this year, the same as last year. I didn't have any books that I madly fell in love with this year although I did find a few writers who made me swoon over some well-crafted sentences. I intend to do a DECADE in review post later and I cannot wait to revisit some of my favorite books that spanned by 30s. I feel like I grew up a lot in the last decade, and I had some major life milestones, so I'm curious if those are reflected in the books I read. But first, let's see how 2019 shook out.

Longest Book: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I was all in on Kvothe this year. Years ago on a Metra commuter train in Chicago I sat pleasantly next to a fellow reader and we enjoyed 42 minutes of blissful silence reading in each other's company. He was reading Bonfire of the Vanities and I was reading Game of Thrones. When we got up to leave the train downtown, he said, "You should try the Kingkiller Chronicles." And left. I wrote it down on a note and eventually transferred it to a note on my iPhone where I jot down recommendations. I did nothing with it afterward. Then I got paired for a book swap with a great lady and when I mentioned I hadn't read either book in the series yet she hooked me up big time. And by big time I mean these books are huge. They have their critics, but I also really really enjoyed them. You can read the original review here.

Shortest Book: The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity by Matthew Kelly was just 128 pages and I feel like it was repackaged lessons from his other books. Also, spoiler alert, but the biggest lie is that holiness is not accessible to regular folks. It's a great message, but probably could have been a blog post. I gave it 3/5 Stars but didn't bother writing a review.

Best Book: I read 9 five star books in 2019. 9/73. I suppose that's a good amount. Out of those 9 it's really hard to pick a favorite.

In the nonfiction sector how can I choose between Midnight in Chernobyl which was so satisfying to my nerdy cerebral need to KNOW about things and Catch and Kill which made real life sound and feel more exciting than any of the fiction thrillers I read this year. Midnight in Chernobyl gives all the facts in excellent detail and somehow doesn't get slowed down by technicality, even while discussing nuclear physics! Coupled with the excellent HBO mini-series I watched afterwards, I feel like I got a 360 experience of the events. The Chernobyl accident happened when I was only 5 years old so I've always lived with this vague awareness of the facts which I have now been able to put into laser focus. You can read my review here.

But Catch and Kill also gave a lot of facts but also managed to be FUNNY and fill me with rage. How did Ronan Farrow do this? I am inspired by the bravery of the women who came forward and disgusted by those who tried to protect serial predators. What's a girl to do? You can read that review here.

In fiction, only Queenie and Washington Black received five stars. But in May when I finished it, I knew Washington Black was going to be at the top for fiction. Esi Edugyan is a reader's writer. She makes words into sentences that read like music. She made me feel things while still making it clear why I was feeling those things. She pulled no punches and yet wove a semi fantastical narrative about a young slave boy who sails away in a balloon ship and explores the arctic before roaming the depths of the sea. Yeah, all that happened in that book and I really loved it. I get it's not for everyone, but if there are sentences and stories that appeal uniquely to my deepest pleasures in reading, Washington Black packaged them up in one novel. You can read my original review here.

Best Character: See, now, why am I doing this to myself? Why do I have to choose between Kvothe and Uhtred. If you've been following my blog for any amount of time now (thanks Mom), you know I have a love affair with Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Uhtred and I have been having a relationship since I read The Last Kingdom in March of 2017 (you can read that sloppy review here). I'm so comfortable with him that I read FIVE more books in the series in 2019. I only have two left until I'm caught up to where Cornwell has stopped writing. I've tried to prepare myself by starting his Sharpe's Rifles series but I'm afraid nothing will quite replace Uhtred. His brash, swarthy, hot younger self has grown into a brash, swarthy, wise old warrior. While the narrative of a 50 year old warrior is starting to strain even my generous credulity, I'm still entertained and informed by each entry in the series. I just love this guy. You can read my last Uhtred review here.

But Kvothe? Well, come on. He's an orphan who experiences unspeakable terror in the slaughter of his family. Scraps and steals to make it on his own and enter the prestigious University where it turns out he's skilled at playing the Lute and Arcane Arts (magic). But he makes enemies everywhere he goes. He either inspires fierce loyalty or hatred. Then, it turns out he's an animal in the sack. All by the age of 17. Not sure where Rothfuss is taking The Boy who Can Do it All. But I'm basically all in on this wild ride. You can read my Name of the Wind review here.

Worst Book: Part of me always feels a little bad when it comes to pointing out the "worst book" of the year. I mean, if I've learned anything over the last year of being part of the Bookstagram community, it's that reading is a deeply personal experience and even people of like minds can have very different opinions when it comes to books. But there are reviews out there that I read afterwards that I realize could have saved me some time and effort on books that just didn't do it for me, or at least could have tempered my expectations (see my Biggest Disappointment section below). So with that said, I guess here is a precautionary note for Every Man a Menace, which should have been titled, Every Plot Line a Mess. From the reverse timeline to the vaguely developed character arcs, the best thing this book had going for it was that it didn't take long to read. Otherwise, by the time I learned why the "main" character had died, I also learned that I didn't care. You can read the original review here.

Worst Character: While my "Worst Character" contenders usually come from my Worst Book selection, but honestly none of the characters in Every Man a Menace are developed enough to be the worst. So that leaves the characters in my "Biggest Disappointment" book, see below, or a surprise entry which seems more fitting because The Circle was also a bit of a mess stylistically and the main character, Mae, was just awful. I didn't like her enough in the beginning of the book to care that she had a complete 180 character reversal by the end of the book. The elements that get her there are disturbing sure, but she's so vapid at the end that I just did not connect with her path to destruction. She's getting the "worst character" title mostly because being on the journey with her was painful. And reading the book was a chore. You can read the full review here.

Biggest Disappointment: Oh this one is easy. I wanted very badly to like Where the Crawdads Sing. People I like and care about really liked this book. They told me they couldn't put it down. But wow. I could not get into it. All of the characters had moments where they could have earned the "worst character" title. While initially the book started out fine with young Kya going through some major trials, the book took a wide turn into a messy and unbelievable love triangle that read part bad romance novel and part young adult angst-filled hand wringing. Throw in a badly scripted courtroom drama and this novel skidded into a three star finish with an ending that made me throw the book down in a disappointed huff. Only the nature writing saved this from a two-star rating. I know this book has its champions out there, but it really was nothing that I expected and despite being so widely raved, I found my people in its detractors. You can read my full review here.

Honorable Mentions: I read some really good memoirs in 2019 that I need to  mention before closing out this 2019 Year in Review. Becoming, The Glass Castle, and The Year of Magical Thinking received five stars in 2019. I'm glad I read them both. All are by women of resilience and strength. It's a great irony in life that we gain so much wisdom as we get older that we know we could have used in our youth. There is no way to artificially earn this knowledge. That's probably why it's so valuable. But I sometimes wish I could have been open to the voices I'm hearing in my last year of my 30s when I was in my 20s. That I didn't know I was siphoning my knowledge through a narrow lens is small comfort. I'm committed to seeking out more voices and points of view in 2020 and beyond.

Goals for 2020: I've set my goal of 75 books. It's above my 2019 level and is the highest goal I've set. I honestly don't know how this foot is going to hold up and if I'm not able to run... well I may be crying my eyes out somewhere because running is the thing I do for me - the way I make sure I've gotten enough exercise. So this could be a problem. I'm hoping that I'm going to be back in 1/2 marathon shape in no time now that I've tentatively put a few new miles behind me in recent days.

Will George RR Martin get around to publishing Winds of Winter? It's almost a joke at this point that I mention the following year will be the year I read Winds of Winter (that's been happening since my 2015! Year in Review, you can see that here). And I'm once again being lulled into anticipating a release date (check out this update). However, I'm not counting on it (I was similarly disappointed last year and even wrote that EXACT SAME SENTENCE in last year's review - AND the year before that, and the year before that). But if I can read both Name of the Wind AND A Wise Man's Fear in the same year, you bet I can fit in Winds of Winter without ruining my reading goal. My wildest dreams would be a Winds of Winter and Doors of Stone double 2020 feature (Wise Man's Fear was released in 2011 just like George RR Martin's last Song of Fire and Ice book).

Thanks for reading with me this year as I discovered new authors and new series. I really tried to challenge myself this year to leave my own comfort zone and read more authors of color, more LGBTQ authors, more First Nations authors and more authors who come from diverse backgrounds. Bookstagram has certainly helped me discover those voices.

For Better and Worse - Margot Hunt

I'm not sure why people still think they can plan and complete the perfect murder. Listen, I realize the murder clearance rate in our country hovers just under 60%. Wait, that's pretty bad (that's actually really bad, but is a story for another book). But usually, the people who are committing and getting away with murder are somehow involved in the criminal enterprise. But this whole, let's commit the perfect murder thing goes all the way back to Leopold and Loeb and look where it got them.

You know who doesn't get away with murder? White collar suburban intellectuals who think they can PLAN the perfect murder. Because if you don't have the background to either not care about getting caught, or live in an environment where people who could help you get caught don't care about communicating their knowledge to authorities, you're likely going to get caught.

So this is one reason why I had very little doubt that Natalie Clark, a criminal defense attorney, was going to get caught. She thought she was smarter than everyone else, and as I saw her plan out the various aspects of "the perfect murder" she casually looked over all the loose ends she was leaving and believed no one would weaver them together.

The broader aspects of what could drive a suburban mother committed to defending those accused of misdeeds to take another person's life are lost in the shuffle of the plot here and the book would have been better served to delve into these aspects a bit. Otherwise it reads like a thriller which is quick on page turning, but left me feeling like I'd consumed a lot of empty book calories.

I initially didn't like the way this one ended because (so what this lady is just like a serial killer now?) but then I got over myself and allowed myself to just enjoy the ridiculousness of this final note.

3/5 Stars. 

The Flame Bearer - Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell continues to deliver with this series. Somehow Uhtred keeps surviving and each story feels fresh despite this being the 10th in the series so far. In The Flame Bearer, we get a very Uhtred-centric story. For most of the previous books, Uhtred is caught up in political and literal battles beyond his control and he's serving on behalf of one king or another. But in this one, Uhtred is working for himself. He's finally, finally going to take back Bebbanburg.

But of course there is a little wrinkle. Uhtred has continued to make enemies. His championing of Edwards first son Aethelstan has rankled the Ealdorman Aethelham the grandfather of the other possible heir to the throne. Uhtred is unfailingly loyal to those people who have earned his regard and Aethelstan is one of them. So when Aethelham sees an opportunity to cut the knees out from under Uhtred, he goes for it.

I, like Finan, was not quite sure how Uhtred was going to get himself out of this one. He decided to take on a larger enemy in an impenetrable fortress. Classic Uhtred. When will this man ever lose his swagger? Hopefully never. But I'm very interested to see what is going to happen in the next book. Because as everyone knows, North Umbria did NOT remain an independent kingdom. So I'm certain that clash is coming. How will Uhtred thread that future needle?

3.5 Stars

The Friend Zone - Abby Jimenez

It took me about two days to read this book, mostly because I stayed up until 2 a.m. one night (this was not a smart decision but I have no regrets). But one thing The Friend Zone does really well is pacing. The book moves very fast and each chapter leaves the reader wanting to follow the action.

I feel like I'm the last person on Bookstagram to read this one, so perhaps a synopsis is not needed, but essentially Kristen is a woman struggling with uterine fibroids when she meets the best man for her friend's future wedding, Josh. He's a hot fireman who's relocated to California after a bad break up with a woman who did not want children.

Their chemistry is undeniable after a small fender bender meet cute. As their feelings for each other grow, Kristen remains resolute to confine Josh to the Friend Zone. She's aware he wants a large family, and he's not aware she can't have children. So as she continues to push him away, he's very confused. As with any good love struggle, I kept thinking if they just had an honest conversation things would resolve themselves.

Jimenez deals well in this debut novel with making the characters more than just an empty collection of attributes, although I wasn't sure this was going to be the case after hearing Josh refer to Kristen as "a unicorn" and "the cool girl." These types of descriptions kind of make my eyes roll because it sets up unrealistic standards for women. Necessarily, Kristen is "cool" because "she's not like other women." And it's not just enough that she's "cool" because she is also very very attractive apparently without trying. But then Josh is kind of slapped with a hot fireman label as well. And really the characters are likeable because they don't necessarily stick to those roles so the repeated call back to those tropes is unnecessary. Their dialogue is hilarious and again their chemistry is undeniable so I stuck with them when normally, this would have been a no-go.

Jimenez does a wonderful job of building the will-they, won't-they suspense in the book and takes the story out of traditional rom-com with a side story about Kristen and Josh's best friends Sloan and Brandon that well, that sets up the author's next book. As much as I enjoyed this book as sort of a guilty pleasure read, there are some things that keep it from getting four stars. For a first novel it shows a lot of promise and I think Jimenez has a strong career ahead of her as she learns to shed even more of the tropes that detracted from the strong writing in this book.

3/5 Stars. 

Open, Honest, and Direct: A Guide to Unlocking Your Team's Potential - Aaron Levy

I like a good book on communications so I was pleased to receive this from a Goodreads giveaway. While this book's main focus was on inculcating open, honest and direct communication within a group from the leader's perspective, I always find that as a team member, I can also gain insights from this kind of text.

I read this on two legs of a cross-country, multi-state work trip, and I really took to heart the chapter on effective listening. We're all aware of the edict that we work on active listening. But despite knowing this, Open, Honest, and Direct gave me a very explicit instruction to listen to what my inner dialogue was doing when I was supposed to be listening. Sorry friends and co-workers, I have not done a good job. My inner dialogue runs from trying to race ahead the speaker to the point, to trying to figure out what I am going to have for dinner.

This book's real strength lies not in its content as much as it's design. See, Aaron Levy openly talks about what a waste multi-day seminars are that teach teach teach without any application. So Levy lays out the principles, then discusses how to put those into practice, but then MOST importantly, talks about the reflection that is needed for continuous improvement of these principles in action. This is where most leaders fail. I've encountered so many managers who know all the right buzz words to describe how a working environment should function, but they are terrible at actually practicing the principles they espouse.

3.5/5 Stars. 

The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss

I was initially stoked when I realized Rothfuss had written an Auri-centered novella. I ordered The Slow Regard of Silent Things and when it arrived I peeked at the Goodreads reviews and then I got nervous. Some of the reviews are terrible. Rothfuss' preface even notes that people will not even like this book. But me? What can I say, I like it weird.

One of my favorite works is Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Giildenstern are Dead - an absurdist tale of what happens to two minor characters when they're not the focus of action in the major work. And I have been so curious about what happens to Auri when she's not on the rooftop with Kvothe in the Name of the Wind series. Well, now I know. She's very busy keeping the Underthing in Order.

Auri is a tragic character, terribly broken by experience and hardship, but she's also resourceful and while she seems scared and timid, she is actually playing by a rigid set of rules that only she understands. And in her world, in her mind, those rules are what keep the universe in order. It's a tall ask for a small person.

The language of the novella can be maddeningly confusing. I'm sure Rothfuss had an elaborate map or reference guide to keep it all straight. To write in Auri's voice for so long must have been a painstaking process. I'm glad he took the time, because no one sees Kvothe as Auri does and it's interesting to see the why behind how she behaves.

4/5 Stars. 

Committed - Elizabeth Gilbert

I must be the one person who has not read Eat, Pray, Love, but I follow Elizabeth Gilbert on social media and I have found her thoughtful and compassionate. And I really felt her pain when her partner Rayya passed away last year. So when I received Committed I was first confused about the topic of the book being her hesitancy to marry her second husband and her doubts about the institution of marriage.

I have to say, knowing that the marriage she was so hopeful for does not work out was a bit of a downer but Gilbert has such a great narrative voice that I couldn't help but get caught up in her story. And also, the background she provides about marriage and the ways it has evolved throughout history and cultures was very fascinating.

Each marriage is unique and Gilbert readily admits she is no expert. This is essentially a self reflection on whether she should enter an institution she does not trust and has believed herself to be bad at. The level of honesty with which she approaches her analysis shows a lot of maturity that I honestly don't think I could muster - or at least I would not be brave enough to put it out into the world.

I know a lot of people just don't relate to Liz Gilbert. But a memoir can't speak to everyone and she's not trying to be something she's not, which is painfully obvious in this book. While this wasn't my favorite book of 2019, I appreciate Gilbert's writing style and her honesty.

3/5 Stars.