I love how Goodreads makes a fun little infographic:
I read 77 books this year! During a REALLY REALLY crazy year! That makes me feel pleased with myself :) Let's break down HOW I read in 2017, since I really tried to keep track of that this year, just to see:
Audible listening: 27
Kindle book: 20
Library Book: 12
Paper book from my own collection: 17
I recognize that that only adds up to 76 but I can't for the life of me figure out which one is missing so oh well. I clearly use Audible the most, that's because I can listen while I DRIVE, while I walk, while I play my Tsum Tsum phone game and while I clean :) I LOVE BOOKS ON TAPE!
I re-read several books this year that I've already given five stars to (I re-listened to the entire Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, The Zookeeper's Wife) but there are a few newbies I gave 5 stars to. I decided to post my actual thoughts about the books (as opposed to plot summaries) here so they are all consolidated :)
Young Adult Contemporary Fiction
Thoughts I wrote:
I did not expect to like this so much. I don't know why. I think the title threw me, maybe. But this book had me both weeping at some points and absolutely back in my own first real teenage love the next. The friendship here is so solid and realistic - how we know SO much about each other and yet, in our teenage selfishness, there is also so much we miss either because it hurts to much to look or because we're so caught up in our own stuff that we don't even know we're missing it. He captures this so well and while this book is actually painful at some points (I was literally weeping), I feel like it caught me in its grip - I CARED about this three teenage kids and what happened to them. The contrast between all the parents seemed a bit extreme but not in an unrealistic way - just in the way I would've noticed as a teen myself - hating my own life and wondering "why can't I have parents like that?" The writing is refreshing - quirky and passionate. Lydia has some awesome one liners that I had to highlight as I read.
While there is enough language and sexual tension that I'd hesitate to give it to a young teen, there is a lot of heart in this book and to step into the heartache that can live in a rural and outcast life is, I think, a good thing.
Fantasy
Thoughts I wrote:
There are few authors that give a story life and soul way that Laini Taylor does. Her characters are so complex and they have to grapple with intense and tangled situations. Just like in real life, there are no easy answers or clear-cut distinctions when it comes to matters of the heart or of right and wrong. The magic and fantasy in this book was everything I hoped for and expected - it is densely gorgeous and painfully distinctive in its beauty within tragedy, she just does that so well. It is such a pleasure to have my incredibly high expectations met once again and read by Steve West, no less? It's like a dream come true. I wait with the greatest anticipation to see what happens to Laszlo and to Weep.
Thoughts I wrote:
After two different friends from very different parts of my life recommended this book to me over a short period, I decided to make it be my next audiobook. I was hooked from the start. The three distinct voices (all very well performed) helped me to immerse myself in this World War II story of destruction and unthinkable evil that somehow produces stories of hope, courage and kindness. I have to say that our author did well having Herta as one of the narrators. It is HARD to read the point of view of the enemy - it humanizes them in a way that makes swift judgements complicated. I feel like it made the story far deeper and more powerful to have some sense of her side of the story - not that it frees her from blame but that it gives us a sense of how complicated it was to be a German, especially a woman trying to practice medicine, at that time.
It took a while for me to figure out how all three of these women would come together but I really was engaged in how it did and I especially like that it is based on true events. I appreciated that our story went far beyond the end of the war, not shying from the emotional implications of experiencing the kind of trauma that concentration camp survivors endured even though they were freed. Sometimes the big jumps in time felt a tiny bit discombobulating but it didn't ever take long for me to feel settled again.. I wept at the end, amazed at the power that truth and knowledge can give to us.
If you enjoy World War II literature as I do, I'd suspect you'll find this a unique addition to the genre. I thought the audio was excellently done.
Young Adult Contemporary Fiction
Thoughts I wrote:
I loved the narrative format that let me alternate listening in the heads of both Natasha and Daniel. Short forays in the stories of minor characters fleshes out and deepens the idea that we ALL have a story - and that every choice we make can affect others in ways we'd never dreamed.
I loved this book - it doesn't shy away from family dysfunction, immigration issues, racial issues - but there is heart in there so deep that you can't help but feel compassion even with all the trickiness.
Note: the readers are AMAZING in the audio but be aware there is strong language
Thoughts I wrote:
I'm giving it 5 stars. I can't believe I liked it that much, but I did. I put off trying this book for so long because I have a hard time with teenage male protagonists, in general (not fair, I know, but there you are) but this one really captured my attention from the start. Yes, it helps that I grew up in the 80s and the pop culture references were beyond fun. But it's also a rollickingly adventurous story. It's intense and incredibly creative. It kept me guessing and made me feel things, and although it lulled a tiny bit in the middle, by the final third I was practically on the edge of my seat, wondering how it would all shake down. I found myself thinking about the "virtual" world that I, too, spend a lot of my time in and I appreciated the overall message of the novel, about how as amazing as the virtual worlds we can create are, we do actually need real people in our lives.
note to parents: language, some discussion of sexual topics
Oh MAN. So those were the best-written books I felt like I read this year. I also read 26 different books to prepare for my fabulous trip to Eastern Europe that I took to celebrate my 40th birthday this year.
I really liked having a goal, reading for this special purpose. I think I need something like that again, to get me excited and motivated. I've got that idea simmering right now :)
I love books. That's all there is to it. Here's to looking forward to another great reading year!
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