52 Books Read in 2019

FICTION

Contemporary Fiction
The Friend Sigrid Nunez
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
There There by Tommy Orange
Supermarket by Logic
Normal People by Sally Rooney
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Literary Fiction
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis

Science Fiction
Dark Matter Blake Crouch
Exhalation Ted Chiang
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
Recursion Blake Crouch
The Institute Stephen King

Fantasy
Witcher Series #1 The Last Wish
Witcher Series #3 Baptism of Fire
Witcher Series #4 Blood of Elves
Witcher Series #5 The Time of Contempt
(I read these out of order since #1 & #2 are short stories)

Manga
Uzumaki 1-3

Graphic Novel
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

Romance
Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
The Northern Lights Lodge by Julie Caplin

NONFICTION

General Nonfiction
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Make your Bed by William H McRaven
The Four Horsemen
Eat the Frog by Brian Tracey
Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday
Embrace your Weird by Felicia Day
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron
Talking to Strangers Malcom Gladwell

Technology
Gray Day
Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Countdown to Zero by Kim Zetter
Breaking and Entering
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick
Dawn of the Code War by John Carlin
Don’t Be Evil by Rana Foorhaar

Biography
It’s Not Yet Dark by Simon Fitzmaurice
My Own Devices by Dessa
Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer Mcgaha
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman
Dear Girls by Ali Wong
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

Science
Lab Girl Hope Jahren
From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
Hacking Darwin
Will My Cat Eat my Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty
Soul of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery


60 Books in 2018

1/3/2018The NightingaleKristin Hannah
1/6/2018Little Fires EverywhereCeleste Ng
1/12/2018The Lost City of the Monkey GodDouglas Preston
2/25/2018Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely FineGail Honeyman
3/18/2018Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens AgendaBecky Albertalli
3/24/2018Red SparrowJason Matthews
3/29/2018The Great AloneKristin Hannah
4/5/2018AnnihilationJeff VanderMeer
4/6/2018WonderR.J. Palacio
5/14/2018Bird Box Josh Malerman
5/20/2018Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond FearElizabeth Gilbert
5/20/2018You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome LifeJen Sincero
5/21/2018The Last Black UnicornTiffany Haddish
5/26/2018The Little Café in Copenhagen Julie Caplin, Jules Wake
6/3/2018Before We Were YoursLisa Wingate
6/7/2018WildCheryl Strayed
7/21/2018The OutsiderStephen King
7/28/2018Shoe DogPhil Knight
8/1/2018The Wicked DeepShea Ernshaw
8/11/2018CalypsoDavid Sedaris
8/14/2018Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting ChangeEllen Pao
8/15/2018Killers of the Flower MoonDavid Grann
8/28/2018Sing, Unburied, SingJesmyn Ward
8/29/2018Early WorkAndrew Martin
8/29/2018Girl, Wash Your FaceRachel Hollis
8/31/2018All Systems RedMartha Wells
9/1/2018 Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to TexasGarth Ennis, Steve Dillon
9/2/2018Braving the WildernessBrené Brown
9/2/2018Preludes & NocturnesNeil Gaiman
9/3/2018The Talent CodeDaniel Coyle
9/7/2018Bad BloodJohn Carreyrou
9/10/2018The Sun Does ShineAnthony Ray Hinton
9/18/2018Sharp ObjectsGillian Flynn
9/28/2018CherryNico Walker
10/1/2018The Bear and the NightingaleKatherine Arden
10/6/2018What Alice ForgotLiane Moriarty
10/7/2018Between the World and MeTa-Nehisi Coates
10/7/2018Imagine Wanting Only This Kristen Radtke
10/7/2018Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn TooJonny Sun
10/17/2018The Girl in the TowerKatherine Arden
10/19/2018Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & YouLin-Manuel Miranda, Jonny Sun
10/19/2018Boundaries Where You End And I BeginAnne Katherine
10/23/2018Meet Me at the MuseumAnne Youngson
10/28/2018The Husband’s SecretLiane Moriarty
10/31/2018Saga, Vol. 8Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
11/1/2018Where the Crawdads SingDelia Owens
11/2/2018Saga, Vol. 9Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
11/3/2018RobinDave Itzkoff
11/14/2018The Collapsing EmpireJohn Scalzi
11/17/2018The Light of the WorldElizabeth Alexander
11/24/2018As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess BrideCary Elwes, Joe Layden
11/27/2018The Consuming FireJohn Scalzi
12/2/2018ElevationStephen King
12/4/2018Man’s Search for MeaningViktor E. Frankl
12/12/2018In PiecesSally Field
12/17/2018BecomingMichelle Obama
12/18/2018Born to RunBruce Springsteen
12/19/2018EducatedTara Westover
12/21/2018Homo Deus: A Brief History of TomorrowYuval Noah Harari
12/25/2018CirceMadeline Miller


34 Fiction 26 Nonfiction

The 30+ Books I Read in 2017

Benjamin Franklin
Born a Crime
The Nightingale
Origin
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The Handmaids Tale
Artemis
Cyberstorm
Milk and Honey
The Sun and Her Flowers
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
The 5 Second Rule
Sapiens
Women in Tech
Being Mortal
Ego is the Enemy
The Selfish Gene
The Book of Joy
The Last Lecture
Hit Refresh
Hillbilly Elegy
Promise Me Dad
Ready Player One
The Phantom Tollbooth
Turtles All the Way Down
Everything, Everything
This One Summer
Paper Girls Vol 2
Paper Girls Vol 1
Saga Vol 6
Saga Vol 5
Monstress Vol 2
Monstress Vol 1

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Books to Movies 2017

Anytime I hear about a movie releasing that’s based on a book, I try with all of my might to read the book first. Once you see the movie, it’s impossible to go back and read the book and not picture the actors from the movie or anticipate the plot. It’s more or less ruined.. not in a bad way, just that there’s no way to unsee what you’ve seen.

A few titles I’ve done this with most recently:

Room by Emma Donoghue: great book great movie
The Revenant by Michael Punke: FANTASTIC book. Read in one sitting. Ok movie (they changed a bunch, but acting was good)
The Martian by Andy Weir: great book great movie
Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins: I could not get through this book so I didn’t even bother with the movie (which received terrible reviews)
Inferno by Dan Brown: I loved this book, although many did not. Heard the movie was terrible, so I didn’t bother. Shame.. I love Tom Hanks.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: I liked neither
The Fault in our Stars by John Green: great book but even better movie – a rare occurrence

Here are some titles of book to movie adaptations coming in 2017 that I’ll be checking out:

The Circle by Dave Eggers – very excited for this
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The Gunslinger by Stephen King – started it a while ago, but found it hard to get through. Just me? I’ll give it another go.
The Empire of a Thousand Planets (Valerian) by Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin – not sure about this one
The Shack by William P. Young – read this a long time ago and want to re-read before the movie
It by Stephen King – one of my all time favorite King books. If I had the time, I’d read it again, but have you seen how long it is!?
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin – never heard of it, but fantastic actors and good book reviews
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie– ashamed to say I’ve never read an Agatha Christie book..
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls – started this book a while ago, time to finish
The Handmaids Tale by Margret Atwood

 

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Books to check out: Hugo Awards 2017

I’ve vaguely heard of the Hugo Awards before, most likely seeing it mentioned next to an author on Amazon, but I’ve never really looked into them. If you’re not familiar with awards, let me save you a click. This is from wikipedia:

“The Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and were officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards until 1992.”

As a fan of both Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, reading about the Hugo awards definitely piqued my interest. The only problem was that I had never heard of ANY of the books nominated for Best Novel. So that made me think.. what the heck am I missing?? Why have I not heard of the books nominated for awards in a genre I love?! So I looked them all up on Amazon and they are ALL highly reviewed but with a relatively low amount of reviews. So I guess the titles just haven’t touched a large audience? Regardless I decided to see if they made the list for a reason and added all of the Hugo nominees (at least for Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story) to a list. We’ll see how many I can get through before the winners are announced at this years Wondercon on August 11th. If you’re interested in joining me on this journey of discovery, please let me know and we can start a Hugo book club (or something). I’d be very interested in finding others who have also read these titles.

For full list of all categories and nominees: http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2017-hugo-awards/

Here’s the shortened list of the titles I’ll be checking out:

Best Novel

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)


A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)


Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)


 Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)


The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)


Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

Best Novella

The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (Tor.com publishing)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson (Tor.com publishing)
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing)
Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency)
A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com publishing)
This Census-Taker, by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador)

Best Related Work

The Geek Feminist Revolution, by Kameron Hurley (Tor Books)
The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)
The View From the Cheap Seats, by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow / Harper Collins)
The Women of Harry Potter posts, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)

Best Graphic Story

Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

 

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