Read part I here.

April

April was not a good month, but I’ll start with the good things. I started my new position with the State, and I took a trip to Florida to visit my cousin, Erin. We spent a few days at Disney World, and we went to the beach and the zoo. But my last full day there, I got a phone call from my parents telling me that my dog, Jack, had died. My parents found him dead in his bed in the morning. Then, at the end of the month, my dad needed surgery for cancer that had been diagnosed earlier in the year. The bright light at the end of the tunnel, however, was that we brought home a new dog, Molly. My dad wasn’t ready for a new dog, but we asked him while he was…um…slightly out of it in the hospital. So that’s how we got Molly.

Suicide, by Edouard Levé
I read a review copy of this book, and you can find my review online here, so I’ll be succinct. Loved the book. Also, this was another book I read in translation this year (from the original French).

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, by Ally Carter
This is the second book in the Gallagher Girls series, and I brought it with me to Florida as my fun read. This book did suffer from a bit of the sophomore book syndrome (did I just coin a new phrase?), but it was still fun and exciting, and I liked getting to know Cammie and her friends even better.

My Happy Life, by Lydia Millet
I’d read one of Millet’s short story collections in 2010 and really enjoyed it, and so this was the second book I picked up by her. We’d run an interview with her in Willow Springs, and I was really intrigued by the premise behind this book: that of a character who is happy despite all the bad (horrible) things that have happened to her. It’s a quick read, but very captivating, even when you’re unsure whether you really should be enjoying it, because some really awful things happen to the narrator. I’m probably not making a good sell here, but this was yet another fantastic book I read this year.

The Gathering Storm, by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
This is a reread, and I can’t remember now why I picked this particular book up (you know, out of the dozen or so others in the series; I’ve lost count). It’s got a few flaws from what I think was a bit of a rushed production schedule, but after complaints that the previous five or so books had been slow, this one really picked up the pace, and it was exciting to read it again, knowing what was going to happen.

Don’t Judge a Girl By Her Cover, by Ally Carter
The third book in the Gallagher Girls series, and still good. If I remember correctly, I liked this one a bit more than the second one, but not as much as the first.

May

May was when I made a big decision. It was to the point where I knew I didn’t want to stay at my job forever, and in May I decided that I would go to France in 2012, which meant I had a countdown to get me through the longer days. I started doing a lot of research, and I recommitted myself to learning the language. Other than that, not much happened this month.

Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson
This was another reread for me this year (in a year I didn’t do too many rereads). I recommended the series to my dad and my sister, and I felt left out watching them read it. It was amazing to me, too, how much of this I’d forgotten (though I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, because I really don’t retain too much on a first read of anything), so it was almost as exciting to reread as it was to go through it the first time.

Only the Good Spy Young, by Ally Carter
The fourth book in the Gallagher Girls series, this one started to feel a bit flatter to me. It was still good, still enjoyable, but I wasn’t quite sure with the direction it was going in. The fifth book comes out later this year, and I will probably try a reread before then, so I’m curious to see what I think then.

The Artist in the Office: How to Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week, by Summer Pierre
I saw this on a friend’s Goodreads list, and I’d been feeling confined in my cubicle job. All those months at the state made me realize that I am not someone who is cut out for a nine to five desk job. There were a lot of good ideas in this book—and it’s not just geared to the people who have the soul-draining cubicle jobs. I plan on continuing to use these ideas as an outlet for the artsy genes in my body. ‘Cause, you know, writing doesn’t do that…

Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
I found this book in one of my boxes and decided to pick it up. I’ve read it before, probably more than once, but it’s probably been fifteen years since I last picked it up (it’s one of my Day Zero goals to reread 10 books from my childhood). I remember really liking this book as a kid but now, despite my love of YA, I found it just okay.

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, by Brandon Sanderson
The second book in the Mistborn trilogy. This was also a reread, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time as the first time.

June

June saw me really diving into my French and looking for new jobs. We were remodeling at work, and toward the end of the month, I was moved to a hallway desk. Other than work, this was the month when my second book review was published, and not much else happened.

Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
After loving Speak, I went back and bought another book by the same author. This one deals with eating disorders, something I’ve never had experience with but know a bit about. This book felt very real, and it was another book that I just tore through. I don’t want to say much more about it (don’t want to give anything away), but the obsessiveness captured in the book felt spot on, and it was nice to see it explored.

Drown, by Junot Diaz
This book came recommended to me by a girl I went to grad school with. I’d read another book by Diaz and thought, why not? All in all, though, I only liked this book, and, to be honest, I was even a bit disappointed. Perhaps that was because I expected so much from it (I adored The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), but these stories didn’t really stick with me much past putting the book down. I’d like to give it another try at some point, but not yet.

Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
The penultimate book in the Wheel of Time, this was a reread. I won’t say too much about it here because I think I wrote a fair bit about it last year, but it really sets the stage for A Memory of Light, set to be released last this year.

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford
I bought this book because the author, Nathan Bransford, writes a blog that I just love, and having said that, this book didn’t disappoint. It’s a middle grade novel, which isn’t really my thing, but I found this to be a fun little book—entertaining, the right mix of predictability and surprise for this level, and with intriguing characters. I believe it’s the first in a series, and I’m looking forward to reading any that come out.

July

The best thing that happened in July was getting the interview (and then job) at Michigan State. When I accepted the job, I was also fairly late in the interview process at TechSmith as well, so even before I took the teaching job, I was pretty sure my time at the State was limited. The second best thing that happened this month was the release of Deathly Hallows Part II, which maybe seems pretty silly, but I’ve loved those books and those movies, and it was so strange to see one of them for the last first time. My whole family did a double header (parts one and two starting at nine), and my mom, sister, and I spent half the day waiting in line, enjoying the moment with other fans. The bad news this month was that my mom started to have back pain, though at this point we still thought it would go away. Finally, it was July when I started reading for Hayden’s Ferry Review.

The Nine Senses, by Melissa Kwasny
This book marks the first book of poetry I’ve ever read. I’ve never really understood poetry, but ever since my work on Willow Springs, I’ve been making an effort to learn. As such, I hesitate to give my thoughts on this book, because poetry still isn’t really my thing. The collection came highly recommended to me, but it’s so different than the poetry I read in high school English classes—poetry I wasn’t asked to enjoy but to dissect. I found the collection okay, but I don’t know if I would have finished it had reading poetry not been on my Day Zero list.

The Next Queen of Heaven, by Gregory Maguire
This book is one of the reasons I didn’t finish that many books in June. I really struggled to get through this one. I bought it because I loved Wicked, but I should have known just from reading the back that it wouldn’t be my thing. It’s got that quirkiness problem, and so much just felt overdone. This book really made me wonder, too, if I would still like Wicked on a reread. It’s never a good sign when a book gives you those thoughts.

Shadow’s Edge, by Brent Weeks
This is the second book in a trilogy that my sister enjoyed and recommended to me, though she did have a few things to warn me about. I liked the first book (it’s on last year’s list), but I agreed with my sister about some of the problems. Unfortunately, this book didn’t do much to advance the things I enjoyed and instead did more with all the elements I had problems with—unsympathetic female (and many male) characters, excessive sexual punishment for women, etc. I’ll probably read the third book just to finish the trilogy, but I’m not expecting much at this point.

The Financial Lives of the Poets, by Jess Walter
I’ve met Jess Walter and read his work, and I must say that he never disappoints. I especially love authors who (1) have the courage to write about current events in their fiction (it can date the work, after all) and (2) who can write about big issues and problems in such a way that the work doesn’t become didactic or propaganda. Jess Walter succeeded in both these areas, and I always love studying his work, because those are elements I’d like to introduce to my own writing. This book deals with the economic crisis, and I highly recommend it.

I think I’ll leave it there for now. I’ll start with August next post.

For 2011—a year without school for the first time in twenty-one years—I bumped my goal back up to 52 books and 20,000 pages. I hit the first goal (57 books), but I missed my page goal by quite a bit, for the first time in years (only hit 18,932). This will probably take a series of posts, but I’ll go month by month and then finish up with a general overview of the year. So. Here we go.

January

January found me still working at the State of Michigan, though I mostly kept to myself, especially after they forgot to invite me to the Christmas party (then I got scolded for not making an appearance) and then left me out of the secret santa exchange. This is also the month that I really started reaffirming my commitment to writing. I took some time off after grad school (my advisor wasn’t wrong about there being burnout after twenty-one years of school), but the new year felt like a good time to get back into it, and so I started 100 Days of Writing—a project where I tried to write 100 out of 110 days. The month was good for writing, but even better for reading. I got through nine books.

Cathedral, by Raymond Carver
Carver is hit or miss with me, but this book was mostly miss. The only story I remember from it now, a year later, is the title story, and I’d read that one before. There’s something really beautiful about this idea of these two men sitting there and drawing, but the execution falls flat for me. And now, I suppose the hate mail begins for me.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
This was a reread and, to be honest, I only waited a few hours after the ball dropped to restart it. Reading the book in a new year meant I could count it again, and even though I’d only first read it three months before, I couldn’t wait to get back to it. And just like the first time I read it, I loved it. I’ll be reading the book again this year, too, though not until right before the movie comes out in March.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender
We read Aimee Bender in grad school, and I liked her but didn’t love her. I used to love quirkiness in the books I read, but as I matured as a writer, I became more and more suspicious of it. Now I have to see a real reason for it in a story, I have to feel that the story would not function without it—and Bender doesn’t always fit those requirements. But this story worked for me—or, most of it did anyway. The last quarter of the book felt flat, like it made some moves that weren’t quite the right ones. Looking back, though, I couldn’t tell you what the right moves would have been (for me), which makes me think that the problem for me actually stemmed from somewhere earlier in the book, probably with the romantic subplot.

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
I can’t remember why I wanted to reread this book (I feel like something happened that made me seek this book out from one of my boxes, but I can’t remember what). The fact that this is a diary unedited by the author herself makes it hard to evaluate like I do the rest of this list, so I really don’t have much to say about it.

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
The sequel to Hunger Games, this book was also a reread, and still spectacular.

The Gremlins of Grammar, by Toni Boyle and K.D. Sullivan
I read this book at work. It was given to me by a coworker in a stack of books I could read when I ran out of things to do. So I got through this book in a relatively short time. Our tax dollars at work, huh? As far as grammar books go, this one was okay. A bit outdated, and I didn’t agree with all the information, but there was a nice section about word usage that I enjoyed.

Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson
This was the year of short story collections for me. What I liked about this collection was its darkness. I always say that it’s the writer’s job to notice and give voice to the ugly rather than to look away like so many people do, and Johnson does this exceptionally well. This wasn’t in my top three story collections of the year, but I still enjoyed it.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger
I first read The Time Traveler’s Wife years ago and I really enjoyed it, and so while I wasn’t super excited to read this book, I was looking forward to it. That’s sort of how I felt when I finished the  book, too: It was good, but not great. The supernatural elements worked for me, but the way the author used plot twists often had me more focused on figuring those out than enjoying the story. The ending, too, didn’t quite satisfy me.

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
Another reread, and, like the first two books in this trilogy, I loved it. The ending, which many fans found disappointing, felt even more right to me on this second read.

February

Not too much happened this month. I started writing more at work, and kept up the extra writing at home. I also played some soccer, though I think I’d been doing that for a few months at this point. I think the only other interesting thing I did this month was attend a Hard Lessons concert with Marilyn.

Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff
This was the first book I went out and bought with my Christmas gift cards. The cover of this book is super eye catching, but what really drew me to the book was the idea of Cleopatra herself. I’ve never felt comfortable with the image of Cleopatra as the cruel seductress, the she-devil, who manipulated and ruined great men. This book sought to specifically refute those myths with extensive research. If I remember correctly (too lazy to go get the book from downstairs), Schiff used sources as close to Cleopatra’s time as possible, and she also explored the various biases present in the sources.

Willow Springs 67, edited by Samuel Ligon
I’m biased, obviously, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that this issue was great—it also happened to be the last issue that I had anything to do with. I really liked the Dawn Raffel shorts, as well as all three of the fiction pieces.

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld
It’s hard for me to evaluate this book accurately. This is the first book of steampunk I’ve ever read, and I didn’t know what it was when I started the book (or even that the book was steampunk). Therefore, I spent most of the book thinking that it was set in the future when, in fact, it’s set in the past. Knowing this ahead of time would have helped me understand more of the book and would have probably helped me enjoy it more. That said, I liked the female main character, and I liked the exploration of gender roles in the book.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter
This is never a book I’d have picked up by myself, but I read the blog of the agent who sold this book, and I love the blog. So, when I saw the book in the bookstore, I picked it up and gave it a try. Much to my surprise, I loved it and read it almost straight through in one sitting. It’s a boarding school book, which has been done, but what makes this book a lot of fun is where it went out of the mold: an all girls school for spies, the difficulties of living a double life, the decision between wanting to be a normal girl and an exceptional one, etc.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
I picked this book up from my shelf after a controversy erupted online over darkness in young adult literature. This book was one of those in the line of fire, and I was so angry over people saying that young readers shouldn’t be exposed to difficult themes (such as rape, suicide, self injury, death, violence, etc.), that I picked this book up. I only meant to read a chapter or two, but I stayed up half the night to finish it.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
My dad heard about this book (on the radio, I think) and brought it home for me. Apparently Barbery has met with quite a bit of success in France (this is a book in translation), and now she’s having similar success here, if judging by the fact that the book often has the book displayed with the cover facing front. Anyway, that’s an aside. This book was fantastic. I loved the French setting, the interweaving stories of the two main characters—even the ending, which I won’t go into here, because I’m recommending that you all go out and buy this now.

March

March wasn’t much of a fun month. My sister and I watched my parents’ house while they went to Hawaii (and got hit by the tidal wave from the Japanese earthquake). Then, when they got back, we took our toy fox terrier in to get his rabies shot, and he reacted poorly to the shot and needed to be rushed to the vet after he collapsed. He spent the end of the month in this tiny little glass cage at the vets (he needed oxygen). This was also the month, right at the end, where they almost laid me off at my job but then offered me a position in another area where I would be writing for the MEAP test.

How They Were Found, by Matt Bell
Matt Bell is, to put it simply, awesome. We edited him at Willow Springs, and I read a chapbook by him last year. He was even the editor who worked with me on my first published piece of writing (a book review). None of that, however, should be seen as the reason for me raving about this story collection. From the first story (The Cartographer’s Girl) to the final (An Index of How Our Family Was Killed), these stories grab hold of you and don’t let go. And, as an added bonus for people living in Michigan, buy this book and you’ll be supporting a local author.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
My sister really enjoyed this series, and she’d been recommending it to me for a while. She really likes the mythology aspect of the series, and that’s always something I’ve been interested in as well. The book wasn’t great, but it was good, and original enough to keep my interest. The character of Annabeth was especially intriguing to me.

You Know When the Men Are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon
Another story collection. I kept seeing this title at the bookstore, and I’d recently seen it featured on one of my bookstore mailing lists. The idea behind the collection—the stories take place around the idea of families being split through deployment—really intrigued me. Most take place on the base itself, but the narrowness here is not repeated in the ideas explored during the stories. Each one does something new, and they all shine. This was my favorite collection of the year, and I highly recommend it.

It’s halfway through April, and I’m doing dead awful when it comes to my yearly reading. In my first month of this new year, I doubled my goal. February was okay, but March was horrible. I don’t think I’ve finished a book in three weeks or so. I’m rather ashamed, truth be told. Especially since I wrote that post a while back about finding more time to read.

I’m working on a book review right now, which means I’m reading a bit slow (and trying not to distract myself with other books), not to mention all the insane drama that’s been going on in my life the last few weeks (dog almost died, two family members have had to go to the hospital, and I had to take my car in twice for repairs). But still, these are excuses, and I recognize that.

So. There are 18 days left in April. And I’m setting myself a goal of finishing 7 books in that time. I’m going to start reading more in those spare moments that crop up in my life rather than surfing the Internet, playing Dragon Age, and just generally stalling. But I’m writing this from Florida (got in this afternoon), which means I’m on vacation, which means I’ve got some spare time on my hands (especially the next two mornings since I’ll be hanging out at my cousin’s apartment while she works).

But you know what would really be good for me? If I turned off Food Network, grabbed a book out of my suitcase, and read awhile.

While at work today, I had to look up the Common Core State Standards. For those that don’t know (I wouldn’t, if I didn’t have the job I do), they are pretty much what they sound like—common education standards designed to be used across the states (see the specific standards here). According to the website, the standards

define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs.

They are supposed to be a framework that teachers work within—flexible, and all that. But if you’re like me, you wonder if a national guidance standard doesn’t soon become, well, a requirement. It was this feeling that resulted in my complete and total dismay after seeing the list of exemplar English Language Arts texts (PDF).

I jumped immediately to page 101 in the PDF since I figured I’d be most familiar with the high school texts. And I was right, in a way. I’ve heard of almost everything on the list, because it’s all so predictable. Almost nothing published within the past 30 years, and I think I only counted 2 novels from the past 20 (The Book Thief and The Namesake). I asked one of my coworkers about it (she taught language arts not too many years gone) and she said it’s an example of the pendulum swinging the other way, that in the past fifteen or twenty years (I made that number up; she only said recently, but included the time of my high school education in “recent”) the push had been toward modern literature and that this had created a sort of backlash. People kept wondering why students (why their children) weren’t being exposed to the “classics.”

Now, I don’t know about my readers, but this surprised me. I can’t recall reading a single modern work during my K-12 education. The only thing I can really think of is when I read Homecoming (1981) in sixth grade, which would have been about 15 years after it was published. Other than that, it was classics all the way. Catch-22, Brave New World, 1984, Shakespeare, Their Eyes Were Watching God, A Doll’s House, The Awakening, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies, Antigone, etc. As for poetry and short stories, I don’t think we read anything written after World War II, with most of the work pre-1900s. When I got to graduate school, I was shocked that so many of my peers were so familiar with modern writers, though that seems silly to me now.

My coworker tells me my school might have been an exception.

While advancing through my pre-college education, I had mostly good things to say about it. I enjoyed reading the classics, because I thought that was what book lovers were supposed to do (never mind that even I could tell that most of my enjoyment for these works was feigned, with a few exceptions, of course). When I got the AP English reading list, I set a goal to read through the whole of it (I never did get very far). But now I wonder why we don’t have a more balanced curriculum for our students, why we aren’t exposing them to writers with whom they can still interact: send letters to, have a book signed, eagerly await a new release. Surely there is value to be found in older work as well, but to ignore an entire generation of readers seems to me like we are failing our students, depriving them of the stories set in a world they can recognize, written in language they don’t have to translate. These are books their friends might pick up, their parents. Why should school literature feel like a genre of its own?

I’m always trying to find more time to read. Here are ten of my suggestions for how I make the time.

1. Read during meals. Probably not nice dinners, or first dates (unless you’re lucky and find another crazy bibliophile), but I usually get some reading time in every morning at breakfast and pretty much any other meal I enjoy by myself.

2. Read during your break at work. Currently I’m using my break time to go on walks in order to get more exercise, but when I’m desperate for more reading time, especially in the summer when I can go outside, it’s easy to fit in a few pages during a regular fifteen minute work break.

3. Read before bed. This one seems so easy, but it always surprises me how many people go-go-go during the day and then climb straight into bed. Not only can forming the habit of twenty or so minutes of pleasure (not work or school) reading before bed quickly add up, but it can also help form a buffer between a long day and a relaxing night of sleep.

4. Read while traveling. I’ve been blessed with the ability to read in the car, but even if directing your eyes toward print while in a vehicle makes you sick, there are plenty of other ways to fit in reading while traveling. I’ve been known to read on airplanes, buses, and trains. I read in airport terminals and even while waiting in line to board or to go through security. I think I’ve even pulled out a book while eating alone in an airport restaurant, which is sort of numbers one and four combined.

5. Read while waiting. If you have a book with you at all times you can pull it out whenever an unexpected delay arises. A ride is late? The line at the pharmacy is super long? Your doctor’s office is behind schedule? You can read!

6. Read during commercials. The mute button exists for a reason, and besides, do you really need to watch another beer or car commercial? Sure it’s just five minutes here and there, but if the book is good, sometimes you might find yourself letting the DVR pick up the TV show, or just turning it off altogether.

7. Read as a reward. “I’ll let myself read two chapters after I vacuum the stairs.” “I’ll start that new book after I do that writing I need to do.” The trick here is making sure you actually allow yourself the reward rather than continuing to pile on tasks.

8. Read first thing in the morning. This works best on days you don’t work, obviously, but I find I get lots of reading done on the days when I do it first, even before getting out of bed or eating breakfast, before I have the time to put it off.

9. Set goals. Even if your goal is only one book per month, set it and stick to it. Having something attainable to shoot for inspires you, and you’ll find that you start finding the time to read. I find that this is especially true in January and February, when I’m especially inspired with a new year’s goal, and again in November and December, when I’m desperately trying to meet that goal.

10. Pick the right books. Don’t read the books that other people think you need to read, read the books you enjoy. Don’t be afraid to branch out and try something new, but don’t struggle through a book unless you want to finish it. If you’re reading a book you don’t enjoy, you’re less likely to make time to read it, and if you’re a one-book-at-a-time person (not like me), you’ll soon find that you’re hardly reading at all.

I’m coming clean. I have a literary double identity. In some crowds I’m the high-literature loving MFA grad. I put books by prestigious authors on my shelves (the types of authors that might go on MFA thesis or class book lists, not those that necessarily sell gazillions of copies). In this life I balance my reading load, trying to fit in fiction (both short stories and novels) and nonfiction, and I’m even working myself up to some poetry. I subscribe to literary journals (though I’ve let most subscriptions lapse due to budgetary issues; I should amend this). I write book review. It’s in this life that I’m working on my book.

In my other literary life I inhale Wheel of Time books, various YA novels. I listen to Harry Potter on audio book (every night before bed; it’s helped with my insomnia and also keeps me distracted when I’m in bed recovering from a headache). It’s this side of my literary character that recently drove me to dig through the boxes of books in my basement to pull out a Clan of the Cave Bear book and the two books in the Island of the Blue Dolphins series thing.This side of me wants to write a YA book some day and is tossing ideas around in the back of my head. Heck, I’ve even been known to write some fan fiction.

Now don’t get me wrong here. One of these isn’t the real me while the other is a front. I love it all. I love a good, tough read as much as a quick lighter one (and I’ve been known to walk around the house, talking to myself as I analyze both). I love the time I spend working on my book (even if it is hard as all hell), and so far I’m really enjoying exploring the new (to me) genre of book reviews. When I got the new issue of Willow Springs last week I devoured it, then tore through 600 pages of YA the next day.

But I can’t help feeling, as I switch back and forth, that I’m somehow doing something wrong. You see, I don’t know many (any?) people like me. I know genre lovers who will pick up the occasional “meatier” book, and I know literary fiction readers who will read genre from time to time, but I have yet to meet someone who feels like he or she is being torn both ways. It’s as if, when I’m reading one, I can’t wait to finish so I can get back to the other. There really just aren’t enough hours in the day for my reading apparently.

Maybe what I should do is look at this as an opportunity. I may be just one person, but maybe I can bring about a bit of change. Maybe I can get the literary fiction people to enjoy and find real worth in more genre work, and maybe I can get genre readers to turn more of their attention to those books by small presses, those books that I have to order specially from the bookstore. I’m just one person, but I figure there have to be more people like me out there, and even if there aren’t, hey—one is still better than none.

In the meantime, I’m reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog (in translation from the original French, definitely literary fiction). At the top of my figurative to-read stack I’ve got a few YA books, three adult fantasy novels (two of which I’ve borrowed and should really get to soon), a nonfiction reportage-type book, and two books of short stories. Then there’s the novel I’ll be reviewing when it’s published in April (unless I can get an ARC sooner). And the question I always ask myself is: What on earth am I going to read next?

Now that I’ve gone through all the books I read in 2010, it’s time for a roundup of those I enjoyed the most and those I enjoyed the least. At the end of the post I’ll have some stats on how many books I read total and how I did on meeting my goals for the year. But first, in no particular order, my top five new reads. For those of you that saw my list on Bark, I’m aware that this probably doesn’t match. Different day, different state of mind, different thoughts.

5 Favorite Books of 2010

1. Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
2. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (though to be honest I have a very difficult time picking a favorite in this trilogy; I sort of picked this, the first book, by default)
3. The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

4 Most Disappointing Books of 2010

1. Dragonspell, by Donita K. Paul
2. Travels in the Scriptorium, by Paul Auster
3. Wittgenstein’s Mistress, by David Markson
4. Girl Trouble, by Holly Goddard Jones

Favorite Books by Genre

Literary fiction: The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Euginedes
Adult fantasy: Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Story collection: Love in Infant Monkeys, by Lydia Millet
Young adult fantasy: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Nonfiction: Half the Sky, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Shorts collection: Wolf Parts, by Matt Bell (the only collection of shorts I read, but I’m including this because it was phenomenal)

Rediscovery of Note

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

I fell quite a bit short of my goals for 2010, mostly due to a slow fall (and a horrible March, during which I read ONE book). I set myself the goal of one book per week, so 52 for the year. I ended with 43. I guess it isn’t so bad when you consider all the thesis writing, my trip to Europe, job hunt, then adaptation to being a 40-hour-per-week working professional (hint: I found it much easier to be a 40-plus-hour student than I’m finding it to be a 40-hour worker). Below are the official stats for my 2010 reading.

Total books: 43
Total pages: 19931
Average days it took me to read a book: 8.5
Average pages per book: 463.5
Books read percent to goal: 82.7
Pages read percent to goal: 99.7 (yup, that’s right, I missed my goal by 69 pages)

I have set myself the same goals for 2011: 52 books and 20,000 pages, though I’m starting to think that those two numbers might not go so well together. If I read a lot of big fantasy novels I’ll be fine, but if I branch out more in my reading, as I intend to do, I won’t be so fine. Still, it’s something to shoot for. Who knows, maybe this year I’ll actually beat my reading goal, which I haven’t done since 2006 (when I, ahem, read 51 books with a goal of 50). Still, I’m on track. We’re three weeks into the year and I’m through 5 books already. Plus, I’m hoping to finish another two or three this weekend. Yeah, I’m a nerd. I love it.

Currently reading: The Gremlins of Grammar, by Toni Boyle and K.D. Sullivan; Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff; and Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson. Next up: A Thousand Sisters, by Lisa Shannon

Read part I and part II.

September

September was the start of Spartan football, and at halftime of the first game, I came down with a mysterious illness. This was perfect timing, since I lost my health insurance about ten days later. Of course, at that point we still thought it was just a cold. I canceled my birthday party and had two job interviews, during which I tried my best not to sound like death. It must have worked, however, because I was hired as a contract writer and editor with the State of Michigan. Six days after my interview, I started work.

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
The second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, I didn’t feel the letdown so common to sophomore trilogy books. This book was intense and surprising, and the characters took even more shape. I can’t really talk specifics without risking giving away the first book, but in a general sense, I continued to be impressed by the risks Collins took in developing such an unusual and intriguing heroine. Plus, this book ended on the gutsiest of all cliffhangers. But lucky for me, I had the third book ready to go.

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
Ah, the book that started it all for me. Thankfully, when I picked up the book, I didn’t remember a serious spoiler I’d accidentally happened across a few weeks before when, like an idiot, I’d decided to read a review. Like Catching Fire, this book took risks, and there were times when I wasn’t sure what to think. But it was a good feeling, because the author had succeeded in leading me off the beaten path of cliche and archetype. Characters faced choices again and again that, not only was I not sure how I’d react, I wasn’t sure how I wanted them to react, or even what I thought the best choice of action was, proving that Collins had successfully complicated both her story and her characters. Some people have made complaints at the ending of the book, and at the way this book deviates from the previous two, but when I put it down, it felt right to me.

October

October proved that I did not have a simple cold. This month took me through the official diagnoses of a sinus infection and bronchitis and an unofficial diagnosis of whooping cough. All I know is that it was awful, and nothing I took made me better. Finally I took myself off the cough syrup with codeine after it started to actually taste good. Oh, and after a strange incident in which I was being attacked by a gang of invisible cats. I watched more football from my couch than from the stadium this month.

A Crown of Swords, by Robert Jordan

The seventh book in the Wheel of Time series.

Path of Daggers, by Robert Jordan

The eighth book in the Wheel of Time series.

Winter’s Heart, by Robert Jordan

The ninth book in the Wheel of Time series. At this point I’m reading like mad to be caught up in time for the new book, but I don’t make it.

November

Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The newest book in the Wheel of Time series. I think it’s number 13. And let me just say, this book flies by. I won’t go into too much detail, assuming most of my readers aren’t familiar with this series, but a common criticism of the series is that it moves too slowly. We could debate about that (I can see the arguments), but at times I would almost say this book’s pacing was too quick at times. All right, I understand the reasons for this (only one book to go after this, and a lot that has to happen, plus a new author), and I’m really not complaining, but damn! Some general stuff: The pieces are all in place for the final book, and some scenes that I’ve been waiting for finally happened (even if I wasn’t sure exactly what I was waiting for). Some character that annoyed me redeemed themselves in this book, as people are wont to do. All in all, this book was fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to the reread I have planned for early this year. (As an aside for fans: If you missed the who-killed-Asmodean reveal in the text and were pissed when it came out in the glossary, you need to read more carefully. The answer was dropped not once, but twice! I’ll get off my soapbox now.)

Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
This was another one-session read, but it hardly counts since it was so short. Truth be told, I considered not including it on the list, but it is a book. Basically this book made me feel bad about every single one of my eating habits and has be convinced I’m going to die, oh, sometime next week. If only the food I like didn’t taste so darn good!

December

When December started I didn’t seem sick anymore because I wasn’t coughing to the point where I couldn’t breathe, but really, even know in January, I’m pining for my missing health insurance, because I just don’t feel normal. This month, though, marked the time when I was feeling well enough to play some soccer (I played a bit earlier in the fall but really struggled with it). The holiday season was nice with the family, and it was made especially nice by the fact I didn’t have to fly 2,000 miles to enjoy it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
This was a book I picked up to read back in September for banned book week but somehow never got to until now. (Actually, a friend of mine from Oregon has been recommending Alexie to me for years.) This book made me wish I’d read him sooner. I don’t tend to be a person that appreciates humor in books (I’m not sure what that says about me). I think there’s a fine line that I enjoy. This book hit it exactly, all the while mixing in the deeper emotions that, I believe, must be present to give a book any type of deeper resonance. I’ll be reading more Alexie.

Lush Life, by Richard Price
A gift from a fellow MFA-er, this was a slow read for me, but only because every time I picked it up (which I tended to do right before bed) I kept doing the one-more-chapter thing. “One more chapter,” I’d tell myself, “just one more.” It would be an hour later before I’d finally turn off the light. So I had to proceed carefully with this incredibly addictive book. It came recommended to me for the author’s willingness to look at social issues, and I really appreciate this, because it’s something I try (and often fail) to do in my own writing. Coupled with the police drama going on, it made for a very interesting and engaging (and literary, whatever that means, really) read.

Knife of Dreams, by Robert Jordan
The eleventh book in the Wheel of Time series. And it’s only now that I realize that, though I read the tenth book, Crossroads of Twilight, I never put it on my list. Just imagine that it’s here. Because I only know that I read it in either November or December.

Half Empty, by David Rakoff
My dad bought me this book after hearing about it on the radio. I enjoyed the humor, the wit, and I liked the earlier sections (essays?). However, the deeper I got into this book (I’m not sure if it’s a memoir or a book of essays or what), the more it left me wanting, well, more. I wondered at the shape, at what pulled it together as a cohesive unit. Because something made it feel like more than an essay collection, but it also felt like less than any other type of nonfiction I’ve seen. Anyone that has read this, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this. What makes this book exist? And what makes it exist in its particular form?

No pictures in this post. I’m feeling sleepy. There will be one final post to sum up my favorite books, my least favorites, and to offer some stats on how I did meeting all my goals for the year.

Continuing from where I left off last time.

May

May was the month of full-on thesis panic. First, I had my committee changed, then we couldn’t agree on a defense date, and for a bit it looked like I’d have to defend the first possible week, meaning that I’d have to turn my thesis in at the beginning of the second week of May. Since I was still having trouble finding that magical rightness for the final 35 pages or so, this was not a happy thought. However, my wonderful committee members ended up going out of their respective ways to make sure that I had a little extra time to get it right. That meant that the panicked phone calls to my parents where I broke down and claimed I was just going to drop out—with one month to go—ended. That was nice for everyone involved. On the downside, though, my work with Willow Springs was coming to a close, and though we were still in full swing getting the next issue to print, it was very bittersweet knowing that it would be my last issue with the magazine.

Travels in the Scriptorium, by Paul Auster
Still in thesis reading frenzy, I picked up this Auster book for two reasons. First, I was concerned that my thesis list was leaning heavily toward female authors. Second, I’d read Auster before (The New York Trilogy) and enjoyed him. This book, however, was anything but enjoyable. I was so bothered by the book, in fact, that I wrote a blog post about it for Bark. Talk about overusing device! For a bit I thought about taking the book off my list and replacing it with something better—and the lateness of the date be damned!—but then I remembered that we learn just as much, and sometimes more, from the books that fail. So I kept it. And it ended up being an interesting discussing topic during my defense.

The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
To put it succinctly, this book was amazing. I read all but the first dozen or so pages in one sitting, unable to put the book down. For those that don’t know, the book is about the suicides of five sisters, which take place over the course of approximately a year. This fact is presented practically on page one (maybe it’s even on page one, I can’t remember exactly). There’s no melodrama here, no wondering will-she or won’t-she. Rather, it’s the story of a family’s struggles and missteps, as observed by the neighborhood boys (the book is told in first person plural). In some ways, I think putting the fact of the suicides up front goes a long way toward forcing the reader to look at the lives of these girls, as well, and that’s one reason why, though I know there’s a movie version of this, I have no intention of seeing it; that’s something that I can’t imagine will translate well to screen

The Great Hunt, by Robert Jordan
This is becoming something of a yearly thing for me, so I won’t talk too much about these books other than to say that I still love them. This is the second book in the Wheel of Time series. I needed something to read that wasn’t related to school.

The Collected Stories, by Amy Hempel
I wasn’t a short story reader before starting grad school. I didn’t consciously avoid them, it just had never really occurred to me that I should read them. But I fell in love in Amy Hempel immediately. This was the only book of short stories on my thesis list (since I was working on a novel, and since many of these were so short), but I made up for the lack by reading her collected works. It’s totally the expected thing to say, but my favorite is “In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is Buried,” though I also loved “Today will be a Quiet Day.” I love her fragmented style, the use of white space, of negative space, of leaving things unsaid. I could study her book a hundred time, I think, and still learn something new on that 101st time.

June

I started June still with two books to go for the thesis, though I was well into both of them. It was quite the whirwind month for me. My last day of work was Tuesday the 8th. I defended the 9th. My parents and Siobhan arrived the 10th (which, coincidentally, was the day the rumors started about Izzo going to the Cavs and fans held a candlelight vigil at Breslin). (I had a paper due for my feminist theory class sometime that week, too, though I’m about 99% sure I finished it prior to my defense, counting on post-defense catharsis.) Friday was my graduation, followed by dinner out, then my graduate reading. It was my second time reading in public, my first in front of my family (and my advisor). Saturday was the Willow Springs release party. Sunday we loaded up the truck and left. Sunday night, Montana, Monday night, South Dakota (Corn Palace!), Tuesday night, with friends in Iowa. We got back to Michigan on Wednesday and within 24 hours I was on a plane bound for Europe. Spent time in Switzerland, then Paris, then I was home before July. What a month!

Wittgenstein’s Mistress, by David Markson
I bought this book years and years ago, kept starting it, but never finishing it. This, I decided, was my chance. It was unusual, quirky, and had a nontraditional form—one that reminded me of Ava in a lot of ways. But it was a struggle to finish. And while Ava sang to me, this book seemed to hit mostly wrong notes. However, it worked out, because it gave me something specific to compare against in my defense, so even though it was a struggle, it paid off. I won’t be rereading it, however.

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
This book was one of the few rereads on my thesis list, and I was pleased to see that it grew with time (though you could never say that I didn’t enjoy it the first time). I think I understood it more this time around, its complexities. What was most intriguing to me this time around was the way this book was able to look at complex social/cultural issues without ever crossing the line into propaganda. It’s a thick book, and it didn’t pull me through in one sitting, but every bit seemed worth it. At some point I’d like to read more by Smith.

Love in Infant Monkeys, by Lydia Millet
This is one of only three books that I’ve read that I can say I’ve had the pleasure of talking to the writer—and I don’t mean at a reading. I actually missed the reading because I was in a horrible mood (don’t remember why) and, as therapy, went and got my ears pierced. Instead, I went to the party my program hosted for her later that night. When she, along with a few other people went out for a cigarette break, I tagged along for conversation. She’s a very cool (and very friendly) person. (As an aside, Jess Walter was there too, meaning that he is another of the three.) Anyway, I’m talking more about the author here than the book, because I’ve already talked about the book—in my very first publishing credit ever! For those that don’t feel like clicking through, it’s an awesome book. Go read it.

The Dragon Reborn, by Robert Jordan
The third book in the Wheel of Time series. My spreadsheet says I finished this in Europe—in Paris—but it must be wrong. Why was I reading while in Paris?!

July

I don’t remember too much of this month. I unpacked my stuff at home, settled in. Started looking for a job in between helping my parents with the cooking and cleaning. I went out with my sister when she celebrated her 21st birthday (her birthday was while she was in Europe). I took a break from writing.

Girl Trouble, by Holly Goddard Jones
I wanted to love this book. I did. The premise seemed like it would be right up my alley (though, maybe if I’d given the title more weight I’d have proceeded more cautiously). I think the idea was to complicate the issues portrayed in the collection of short stories, but the various means of complication felt contrived, as if the author wanted to make a point and was more concerned in that than in telling a true story (I know, I fall into this trap often myself).

The Way of Shadows, by Brett Weeks
The first book in a series my sister recommended to me. I found the story to be mostly engaging but the writing to be rather weak. I’ll probably finish the series (I hate leaving series half-finished, as if I’ve abandoned characters halfway through their lives). I think the biggest problem with the book was that I found a supporting character to be more interesting than the main character, who I found to be whiny, with unclear motivations and morals. These things can be okay—we all change motivations and morals—but his seemed to change to fit the plot instead of coming out of the plot, if that makes sense.

The Shadow Rising, by Robert Jordan
The fourth book of the Wheel of Time.

Stone of Tears, by Terry Goodkind
The second book in the Sword of Truth Series. This book is as far as my memory serves me in this series, and I want to continue my reread of this series, but unfortunately this is as far as I own. I don’t love it enough to want to invest the hundred or so dollars it will probably cost me to buy the remaining ten or so books, and when I checked the library they didn’t have them, so like I said, I’m stuck. If anyone owns this series and wants to lend them, let me know. I treat books nicely and am good about returning them.

August

I can’t seem to recall anything that happened in August. I kept applying for jobs. I spent a lot of time reading but still not doing much writing. I think this was the month my book review came out. Woo!

The Fires of Heaven, by Robert Jordan
The fifth book in the Wheel of Time series. Goodness, I was on quite the fantasy series kick. It’s like grad school rehab.

Jesus, Interrupted, by Bart D. Ehrman
I originally picked up this book while at that awesome independent bookstore in Denver—Tattered Cover? This book looks at the contradictions in the Bible along with possible reasons for the contradictions and explanations for why most laypeople aren’t aware of the contradictions. I’ve read Ehrman’s work before, and it’s all accessible, but this, I think, was even more so. And it was interested for me to come read it, coming as I do from a particular background coupled with a certain present. Worth a look, if you’re someone who can stomach the possibility that there may be contradictions—though if you aren’t, I suppose there could be an argument that you need to give it a try more than anyone.

Princess, by Jean Sasson
This might be another book that I read in a day, though I can’t quite remember. At the most, it took me two days. It’s nonfiction, though many details have been changed for the safety of the woman profiled. It tells the story of a Saudi princess, the challenges she’s faced and overcome in her life. I did wonder while reading, however (and do again, now) at our Western fascination with the Middle East, specifically with the women. I wonder how much is too much, and at what point we begin to exploit them for our own entertainment and curiosity purposes. The alternative, separating the cultures by silence, is probably not the answer either, but I do wonder if we’ve gone too far to the other side. Anyway, this is a trilogy, I’ve heard, and I’d like to read the remaining two books at some point.

Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
A fantastic book of reportage, this book looks at the various plights faced by women and girls around the globe, and the ways that those of us in the West should—and shouldn’t—help them. Sure, the book argues, some aid programs are more glamorous that others, but not all help equally. Anyway, I’ll stop there because I’m not doing the book justice. It’s really good though, and looks at the stories of individuals alongside various aid programs that have made a difference in their lives.

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, by Alberto Angela
This book was written by someone in film, and it shows. The information is good, but the presentation really got my back up. I got sick of being told what I saw, and how I felt about it. (Also—typos galore!) Still, it was quite an interesting read, and I learned a lot about this specific time period in Ancient Rome. If you can overlook the downsides I mentioned, it’s worth a read. If not, well, there’s always Wikipedia.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
So I logged on to Facebook one day and saw half the writers on my list talking about Mockingjay. Mockingjay? I’d never even heard of it. But it was somehow important enough that most of them had. Well, this made me upset. I don’t like it when a reading trend somehow passes me by, especially when I do some research and find out it’s the final book in a trilogy. So I went out and bought The Hunger Games, the first book, to see what all the fuss was about. Let me tell you, I figured out pretty quickly. I literally could not put the book down. There was a moment when I needed to wash my hands and so washed and dried one hand at a time so I didn’t have to stop reading. The book is young adult, but don’t let that make you think that you’re getting a watered down story, or flat characters. I may have finished this book mere hours after buying it, but it lodged itself firmly in my head. It’s haunting, in the best way possible.

The Lord of Chaos, by Robert Jordan
The sixth book in the Wheel of Time.

And I’ll leave it at that. I’ll finish up next time! I’m through 2/3 of the year, but I’m well over 2/3 of the books now. Still, it’s my bedtime.

First, my apologies for not posting here in so long. I’m going to try to post weekly in 2011, at the very least. We’ll see how that goes. It occurs to me only now just how horrible I’ve been. For instance, I never posted the pictures from my Europe trip that I promised. I got back on the last day of June. Yeah. I’m a horrible person.

But this post is not about apologies. It’s my 2010 year in review post, and it’s largely centered around the books I read. So sit back and enjoy, or skip. Because it’s going to be a long one.

First, the goals. For 2010 I set a goal of reading 52 books and 20,000 pages.

And now, the books (with a few life notes for reference).

January

My wonderful parents payed the change fee on my return ticket back to Washington and allowed me to stay in Michigan over the new year. Back in Washington it took a bit of getting used to to be in the apartment alone, but I settled in as well as can be expected. I worked on my thesis and on Willow Springs. I also finished two thesis books this month, since despite all my assertions to read like mad over the summer and through the fall, I was a bit behind.

Dragonspell, by Donita K. Paul
I picked this up before flying back to Michigan because I wanted something completely mindless. Plus, it had a cute picture on the cover. But silly me thinking that something shelved in the fantasy and science fiction section would be primarily fantasy. This author couldn’t have been more blatantly preachy if she’d chucked a Bible at me. I finished the book (obviously, or it wouldn’t be on my list) because there was this one tiny humming dragon that was super cute, but it was propaganda to the point where I was actually moved, for the second time in my life, to go online and post a book review on the seller’s website. Now, I can stomach religious mythology (I’ve read the Narnia books, for instance, and will probably read [most of] them again at some point) but this was overboard. And what’s the author’s response to reviews that politely pointed this out? Well, apparently I’m a God-hating cretin (not her words, but very much the sentiment).

Ava, by Carole Maso
This was a reread for me, for maybe the third time. And I loved this book. Was completely captivated by it. However, when I picked it up in January, it didn’t sparkle like it had before. It’s a lyric novel that asks for a lot from the reader (for instance, there are no chapters, no paragraphs, even, and much of it reads more like poetry; the narrative structure is unlike anything I’ve ever seen) and perhaps I just was at a point where I couldn’t give it, because when I reread this book again a few months later (it was a thesis book), it had that old loveliness back.

The Gathering Storm, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Also a reread (it was only published in late October of 2009, but as it was the 12th book in what is perhaps my favorite series of all time—and super long—it merited a quick reread). I tend to blaze through books the first time I read them, so it was nice to go back through this monster of a book at a slower pace. And it was just as good the second time. Sanderson, the author selected to finish Jordan’s masterpiece after he died, doesn’t quite have the hang of some characters in this book (and who can blame him—there are hundreds of characters!) but the world itself felt the same, and I was able to let go and let him take me along for what was an awesome ride.

Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson is one of those authors I kept meaning to get around to, and I was so glad I did. Glad enough that I added this book to my thesis list. Looking back, though, I can’t really say what drew me to her other than the fact she was one of those authors I was supposed to have read. Because if someone would have described her style to me, I think I might have run the other way. Long sweeping narrative (though that isn’t a great way to describe it either), lots of description—those are things I tend to avoid. In some ways, then, this book taught me to expand, that there are ways to make really anything work. That’s it’s not so much what you do, it’s how you do it.

February

Something must have happened in February. In fact, I’m sure of it. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. I was taking a nonfiction class. Overcoming some old nonfiction baggage. But really, that’s all I can think of. Unless you count being so tight with my money that I was, at one point, eating for $5 per day. Oh, and I got rear ended on the highway.

The Lover, by Marguerite Duras
This was another book I’d been meaning to get to that I finally did, and put on my thesis list. Something this and Robinson’s book had in common that really intrigued me was how the authors used memory, how they made it an almost tangible thing in the pages of the novel. Maso’s book, too, but that wasn’t a surprise to me upon reading it. I wasn’t sure (am still not sure) how I will apply this to my book, but I know it will find a way into my writing, because this is something that fascinates me. Not to mention how, in this book, Duras takes issues that might make her readers uncomfortable and turns them into…I’m not sure beauty is the right word, but something complex. Not black and white. (And considering she’s talking about a relationship between a teenager and an older man, that takes some serious skill. I really had no idea going in how I’d end up feeling. In some ways I still don’t.)

Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman
My first nonfiction for the year! I actually went on to read quite a bit of nonfiction (and I think my reading habit has changed, as I’m putting more nonfiction on my to-read list). Considering that in the last 5 years I picked out 10 nonfiction books (that weren’t for class), this year was a big step forward for me. But first, this book. I admit that I’ve got something against the travel memoir. Like the addiction memoir, I feel it’s overdone, though because of this prejudice, I don’t actually read them (or, at least, I haven’t in many years). I did see some of the things that I say bother me showing up in these pages, but I could also see the reason that these type of books continue to sell. I enjoyed this book, and I think I’d be willing to give the genre another try—if a book came with a recommendation from someone I trust, as this one did.

March

On March 1 I started my Day Zero project (which I have been horribly negligent about updating lately, though I am still working my way through the goals). I had my spring break, and suddenly, my thesis defense and graduation began to look a lot closer. Of course, I did make sure to spend some time relaxing first, and watching lots of basketball (which, interestingly, has the opposite effect of relaxing). I think it was this month that I hit something like the 80% done mark on my thesis. Yay me! Let’s just hold onto that awesome feeling for a little bit here, shall we?

The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood
I read one book this month. Yes. One. This one. And it disappointed me. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of my all-time favorite books (it was on my thesis list!), but this one fell flat for me. It seemed like it hung too much on gimmick, like it worked the gimmick too hard. Considering I just finished a book that hung on a food-related gimmick and loved it, I think this is just another example of “anything can work if done well.” Too me this one just didn’t work, though it came to me well recommended. Oh well, to each her own. I still have The Blind Assassin sitting on my shelf. Maybe I’ll get to that one this year.

April

This is where the year starts reforming in my mind. This was the month of AWP, GetLit!, and OH MY GOD THESIS! But first, AWP. It was awesome, and amazing, and I just can’t say enough wonderful things about it. And oh yeah. I can’t afford to go this year and it makes me cranky beyond reason. Especially since almost half my thesis list will be there! I’m still hoping some money will magically fall from the sky in the next four weeks, but I’ve got my sights set on next year. GetLit! was also great, but between those two events, I was swamped this month. Still, I thrive when I’m busy to the point of mind boggling stress. Especially since my weekly massages were keeping the headaches at bay. And finally, remember that thesis awesomeness? Yeah, all gone. I cut half of it this month. Rewrote it, then cut it again.

Wolf Parts, by Matt Bell
I read this tiny yet awesome book while on the plane back from AWP. It looks at the Little Red Riding Hood story in new and creepy ways. I really can’t say much more without getting too specific, but I can say that I met Matt Bell at AWP, and he is pretty sweet. I was familiar with his work from Willow Springs, and I can say that if you like quality fiction with some sci-fi and/or fantasy elements with just enough weird thrown in, you should check out his work.

Auto-Erotica, by Stacia Saint Owens
Another author I discovered through my work at Willow Springs. And when I say discovered, of course, I mean that’s how I found her, not that I’m the one that first noticed her talent. This was my first book of short stories of the year (the Bell book was short shorts). I’m still learning to sit down and read stories the same way I read novels, and this might be the first book of short stories I’ve ever picked up by choice. The stories were hit or miss for me, but none are forgettable. I was actually thinking about one the other night, randomly. But anyway, my favorite is the one we published in Willow Springs, and I swear I’m not just saying that because I worked there.

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
This book was a risk for me. I first read it while a senior in high school. And I hated it. Except hate isn’t really strong enough. I couldn’t stand Edna’s character, the choices she made. In many ways, I took the side of the very society she so longed to escape. I didn’t understand. But now, eight years later, after coming to a sort of feminist awakening, after maturing as both a reader and a person, I did a complete 180. I loved it. I got it. I felt for Edna. I was finally able to look past one aspect (whether or not I agreed with the character’s decisions) and take in the book as a whole. It was a wonderful experience.

Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
Three months was a long time for me to go without reading any fantasy, so even though I was still a bit behind on thesis reading, I snuck this book in for pure pleasure. That said, however, I don’t love this book. I like it, but I don’t love it. I have some issues with what I see as extensive exposition (especially through dialogue) and believe that all the books in this series could do with some crazy trimming (and some darling-killing). But I accept that is probably a subjective stylistic difference and focus on the things that I do enjoy. I’d actually like to reread this entire series (I first read it a few years back), but I only have books one and two, so I’m working on it.

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
Another thesis book, this too had been sitting on my shelf for an exceedingly long time, just waiting for me to pick it up and love it. And I did. Now, some books that I love I pick up and can’t put down until I finish it. Others almost demand a slower pace. This was one of the latter. I can’t really explain why that is, or why, after loving it so very much, I feel so little desire to reread it any time soon. It’s slow moving but engaging, every page. It deals with so many high-drama situations but never crosses the line into daytime soap opera. It felt almost perfectly balanced. So maybe that’s why I feel like I do about it—I’m just ready to move onto another one of her books, to experience that joy as well.

That’s all I can get through tonight. I’ll do a part II in the next few days. And maybe a part III; I’m only through 12 of the 42 books I read this year.