Books I’ve read

Inspired by Jordan Ellenberg’s blog, I thought I’d make a list of books I’ve read.  I’m working on achieving gender parity and American/non-American parity.  In 2011 I had a pretty consistent 75-25 bias in favor of men, Americans, and fiction.  By 2013 that had shrunk to about 65-35.  2014 saw a drastic decrease in reading, coinciding with the end of pregnancy/birth of baby.  That was 50-50 women, 25-75 nonfiction, and 20-80 non-Americans.  Turns out baby books are often written by women!  And 2015 I didn’t think about this goal and it showed: 65-35 men, 80-20 fiction, 50-50 for Americans/non-Americans but it includes mostly British authors.

2016

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

Fledgling, Octavia Butler

Wild Seed, Octavia Butler

Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler

Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

Patternmaster, Octavia Butler (I’m not the only obsessed person)

Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb (nothing wrong with pulpy fantasy!)

Royal Assassin, Robin Hobb

Leviathin’s Wake,  James SA Corey

Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Caliban’s War, James SA Corey (got a little obsessed with pulpy scifi)

An Abundance of Catherines, John Green

Still Alice, Lisa Genova (again)

Abaddon’s Gate, JSAC (obsessed)

Cibola Burn, ditto

Please Look After Mom, Kyung-Sook Shin

The Devil You Know, Claire Kilroy

How to Talk so Children Will Listen and Listen so Children Will Talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Nemesis Games, JSAC

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel

Outline, Rachel Cusk

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, Sun-mi Hwang

The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am,  Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold

So What are You Going to Do With That?, Susan Elizabeth Basalla

Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card

Ashley Turner, Dean Koontz

Babylon’s Ashes, JSAC

The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson

2015

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov (mfn)

The Girls with All the Gifts, M.R. Carey (mfn)

Year of the Dunk, Asher Price (mna)

Fresh Off the Boat, Eddie Huang (mna)

Pretty, Jillian Lauren (ffa)

Married Love & Other Stories, Tessa Hadley (ffn)

The Conquest, Yxta Maya Murray (ffa)

Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway (mfn)

That’s Not a Feeling, Dan Josefson (mfa)

Slice Harvester, Colin Atrophy Hagendorf (mna)

The Unconsoled, Kazuo Ishiguro (this was crazy) (mfn)

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (I went on an Ishiguro kick) (mfn)

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (again; one of my favs) (mfn)

Season of the Dragonflies, Sarah Creech (ffa)

The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (ffn)

Yes Please, Amy Poehler (fna)

Visible City, Tova Mirvus (ffa)

The Martian, Andy Weir (mfa)

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (mfn)

Stoner, John Williams (mfn)

2014

Baby-Led Weaning, Gill Rapley

What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg

Twelve Hours of Sleep by Twelve Weeks, Suzy Giordano

That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion, Rachel Herz

City of Lost Dreams, Magnus Flyte

City of Dark Magic, Magnus Flyte

Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay 6/20

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera 6/15

How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg 6/12

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender 5/18

Night Film, Marisha Pessl 5/30

Watchmen, Dave Gibbons & Alan Moore 5/12

A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson 4/1

We are all Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler 3/25

Wool, Hugh Howey 3/15

His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (this is 3 books) 1/25

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green 1/25

French Kids Eat Everything, Karen Le Billon 1/18

Wounded, Percival Everett 1/18

2013

The Interestings 12/18
The Park Service 12/20 (SECOND WORST BOOK OF THE YEAR)
Sharp Objects 12/15
How Beautiful the Ordinary 12/12
The Red House (Mark Haddon) 11/5
The Time Keeper 12/1
Bringing up Bebe 11/14
American Born Chinese 11/1
Open Water Swimming Manual 8/1
Watership Down 11/1
Marry Me: A Romance (my first Updike!) 11/11
Pastrix 11/8
Justin Bieber: Just Getting Started (Yes I read this yes it was even more awful than expected) 11/7
More Baths Less Talking 11/11
Dead Beat 10/1
Bossypants 10/20
Orange is the New Black 10/13
The Sense of an Ending 3
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 8/10
What I talk about when I talk about running 10/22
Ender’s Game (again) 10
Allegiant 10/22
World War Z 6/25
Safe Haven (how I love Nicholas Sparks) 7/27
Life of Pi
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
The Accidental Billionaires 7/25
Good Calories, Bad Calories 7/20
Shit my Dad Says 7/20
Micro 7/9
Sex on the Moon 7/9
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle 7/9
Alternadad 7/9
The Tiger’s Wife 6/19
Holidays on Ice 6/19
Gone Girl 6/19
Brain on Fire: My month of Madness 6/6
Emma 2
Jane Eyre 5/16
Hoot 5/11
Follow Her Home 4/22
Crazy Salad and Scribble Scrabble 4/12
I Remember Nothing 3/15
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, 3/15
The Devil in the White City, 2
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, 3
Insurgent, 3
Divergent, 3
The Sea, 3
The Great Gatsby, again 2/15
The Book Thief 2/2
The Son (Lois Lowry) 1/1

2011

The Night Circus 12/15
Rainbows End 11/30
Kafka on the Shore 11/15
Cryptonomicon 11/5
Jitterbug Perfume 10/28
Ender’s Game 10/21
The Game 10/16
The Ballad of the Low Lifes (Enrico Remmert) 10/9
Super Sad True Love Story 9/25
Naked (Sedaris) 9/21
Slapstick (another Vonnegut!) 9/17
The Golden Compass 9/16
Ficciones (Borges short stories) 9/10
The man who mistook his wife for a hat 9/3
The man who loved only numbers 8/29
High Fidelity (classic nick hornby) 8/4
Mockingjay (end of HG trilogy) 7/30
Born Round (Frank Bruni slightly disappointing and indulgent memoir) 7/30
Catching Fire 7/29
The Hunger Games 7/29
Proust was a Neuroscientist 7/1
Water for Elephants 6/22
The Wedding (nicholas sparks yeeeeeah) 6/21
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter 6/20
X-Men:First Class 6/15
Jetlag (throwaway by Michele Nayman) 6/12
Nine Stories (Salinger) 6/5
Rant 5/30
The World According to Garp 5/28
The Great Gatsby 5/24 (I know this one probably shouldn’t count)
Catch-22 3/27
The Master and Margarita 3/14
Cat’s Cradle 3/13
On Death and Dying 2/28
The Botany of Desire 1/30
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 1/20
The Serpent and the Rainbow 1/17
Into Thin Air 1/13