Top Ten Tuesday (best memoirs of 2015)

 

Link up with your own list here: The Broke and the Bookish.

 

This week, the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish are asking for our top ten lists. Well, I'm not ready to review my top ten of 2015, so I'm going to give you my

Top Ten Memoirs of 2015.

 

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Terry Ryan

The Know-It-All, A.J. Jacobs
I Regret Nothing, Jen Lancaster

Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl

Following Atticus, Tom Ryan

Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

Voracious, Cara Nicoletti

Driving Hungry, Layne Mosler

Coming Clean, Kimberly Rae Miller
A Fine Romance, Candice Bergen

What I Know for Sure, Oprah Winfrey

What was your favorite memoir of 2015?

 

It's Monday! (12/14/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

Spent the weekend on the couch, ill. Not the time of year when you can afford a weekend like that, exactly. But, Christmas shopping is mostly done, the Christmas letter is mostly done, end-of-year blog posts are half-written. And I only have one more week of work this year. Never before have I needed a two-week break quite like this.

 

 

Last week, I finished three books:

 

 

 

I enjoyed Jen Lancaster's My Fair Lazy. It's not my favorite of her books, and I think all of her books could use tighter editing, but I enjoy them just the way they are. This one was about her quest for culture.

 

I've always thought I should read A Christmas Carol, and I'm glad I did, but it's a story so familiar to me, it didn't really pack much of a punch.

 

And I finished my audio edition of Jim Gaffigan's Dad Is Fat. I enjoyed the book--and the audio version--very much. I think it's as simple as this: if you think Gaffigan is funny, you'll love it, if you don't, you won't.

 

 

I'm reading these this week:

 

Bryson's Notes from a Small Island is equal parts boring English travelogue and witty commentary on England and its people. I think this book probably would mean more to the English or folks who've traveled in England. I'm finding it interesting for the most part, but not always. Still, I wanted to read it in anticipation of his forthcoming The Road to Little Dribbling.

 

And to break up the monotony of Bryson's book, I threw Leah Remini's Troublemaker into the mix this weekend. It's about Remini's life as a Scientologist. Interesting so far.

 

 

And I'm listening to:

 

 

 

I finally made some headway on The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis this weekend. It's a pretty good collection of American poetry. The readers are very good as well.

 

And I'm listening to Michael Perry's Coop. I love this book, and I really wanted to hear it read by Perry. It does not disappoint. This morning I heard him read the part about bovine artificial insemination, and it took me back to my childhood. (If that isn't the weirdest sentence I've written in awhile....) When I miss my dad, I think of the farm, and when I think of the farm, I think of this book.

 

 

I don't know what I'll pick up next, but probably one of my re-reads. Maybe this one:

 

 

100 Books!

Years ago, I had a dream. It wasn’t to travel or marry a millionaire or buy a fancy house. No. I dreamed to one day read 100 books in a year.

And this year, I did it!

 

And I’m still reading…

 

So far this year, I’ve read:

26 5-star books

19 works of fiction

12 books of poetry

9 books for kids (non-picture books)

 

 

Here's a graph depicting my reading for the past 11 years. Looks like I started getting serious around 2012. I wonder what I did with all my free time before that?

 

 

So here's the question. Do you keep track of how many books you read each year?

Good Poems: American Places

Good Poems: American Places

Garrison Keillor 

Category: Poetry

Synopsis: All-American poetry. Lots of it.
Pages: 444
Date finished: 15 April 2015

Rating: *****

Comments:

Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems book series (this is the third) is an example of truth in advertising: the poems included really are good poems.

I have had this one on my shelf for months (years?) just waiting for the right time to dig in. It seemed like 444 pages was awful long for a poetry anthology, so I had to wait until I had the patience and mood for that much poetry. Well. This month I have read more poetry than at any time in my life, I’m quite certain (and I have a long relationship with poetry). It was the right time.

I’d taken Keillor a bit literally with this title. To me, “American Places” meant just that, places around America. I thought there’d be New York City poems, poems about farming and ranching in the Midwest, Philip Levine’s Detroit poems, black poems, white poems, coastal poems, ocean poems—you know, places. Not so. I often find that I can be a bit literal when it comes to poetry, which is, frankly, why I love Keillor’s editing so much. He collects poems that don’t require an MFA to decode, that in fact, likely weren’t even written by MFAs, and he makes no apologies for including the same poets over and over. Do what you like, like what you do, I say. And I like approachable poems. I’m a sucker for poems about dogs, bees, birds, fathers, farms, and good days. And this collection had all of it. It seems trite to say, but there was not one poem in the whole collection that I disliked, only ones that didn’t speak to me as well as others. High praise for any collection.

I found a couple new poets (there weren’t many poets that aren’t quite famous, though) and I was reacquainted with poets I’d like to study in depth like Maxine Kumin and James Wright.

I’ll stop gushing and let the poems speak for themselves. Following are a few of the poems I marked as favorites so you can see for yourself. (Most are linked to Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac website.)

From a Bus Window in Central Ohio, Just Before a ThunderShower, James Wright

Summer Kitchen, Donald Hall

Goodbye, New York, Deborah Garrison

(A rhyming poem that doesn’t drive me nuts!)

Gate C22, Ellen Bass

 

John Green Takes His Warner, New Hampshire Neighbor to a RedSox Game, Maxine Kumin

The Light by the Barn, William Stafford

(Stafford is my Patron Saint of Poetry.)

To make a prairie, Emily Dickinson

(Okay, so I knew this poem before this collection, but it’s one of my absolute favorite poems.)

Winter: Tonight: Sunset, David Budbill

Beans and Franks, Donald Hall

Snow, Aldo, Kate DiCamillo

(I just might be the only American to know DiCamillo for her poetry before I knew her for her children’s books!)

Manna, Joseph Stroud

Inheritance, W.S. Merwin

Men Throwing Bricks, Michael Chitwood

My Father Laughing in the Chicago Theater, David Wagoner

 

Would you recommend this to a friend?
Yes! It’s the perfect place to start if you want to read approachable modern poetry.

It's Monday! (12/7/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

Welcome to December, where I try to shop, wrap, plan, AND read.

 

Last week, I finished this:

 

I have a soft spot for Theodore Roosevelt. Mornings on Horseback is the second book I've read about him this year (the other being The River of Doubt). What an amazing character. This book was billed as not-a-biography of Theodore Roosevelt, but it really is. But only up to a point. It focuses mostly on Roosevelt's younger years with his remarkable family. It deals with his earliest forays into politics but not his years as New York governor and president. This book won the National Book Award in 1981, I believe, and I found it far superior to McCullough's The Wright Brothers, which came out this year. Although parts bored me a bit, it's written with a somewhat conversational, engaging tone. I enjoyed it overall.

 

 

 

This week, I'll continue with these:

 

Is there any worse insult to an author than to say their books are your guilty pleasures? People actually say that to Jen Lancaster. And although they're kind of guilty pleasures for me (I tend not to feel guilty for what I read), I also learn a lot about human nature and the power of a good sense of humor. My Fair Lazy isn't my favorite Lancaster book, but I do like it quite a bit. In this one, Jen has decided to step it up when it comes to engaging in culture in her life. It's funny and warm and has some bad words, just like her other books.

 

And speaking of funny, I'm listening to Jim Gaffigan's Dad Is Fat. I've read some bloggers say "definitely listen to this one" and others say they didn't enjoy the audio. Since I'd read his Food: A Love Story earlier this year, I decided to listen to this one, and I think that's a good choice. I enjoy his delivery--even if I can't watch a whole minute of his TV show. In this one, Gaffigan talks about parenting, and he nails it. My favorite essay so far is the one about Dad being the Vice President of the family (Mom, of course, is the Pres.).

 

I've kind of stalled out on my audio of The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Turns out, listening to poetry being read while one showers is quite difficult.

 

 

Next up (probably):

December Reading List

 

I love December. Not just because of Christmas or time off or other special days. It's just so fresh and possible. It's a time to look back and a time to look forward. It's nostalgic and homey and cozy. No, I don't like the cold and snow and general busyness, but I do love December.

 

I had a heck of a time trying to decide what to read this month. I wanted to save everything for my 2016 reading challenges, which left the dregs of the TBR for December, so I had to wrest some good books off the future list for the present one. Yes, I 'm one of these people who saves things for future enjoyment instead of enjoying them now. I'm working on that.

 

At any rate, I'm really excited for the books on this list. And for the two weeks off at the end of the month to really sink my teeth in.

 

What's on the list...

No list is complete without a little history, and I've been looking forward to David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback for weeks. I have a thing for Theodore Roosevelt.

I've never read A Christmas Carol, and December 2015 seems as good a time as any to remedy that.

All year, I'd planned to do nothing but re-read in December. What better way to chase away winter blues than by spending time with old friends? But then I realized, that might bore me, so I narrowed it down to two: Anna Quindlen's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake and Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project.

And then I chose three quirky reads. I've been saving Jen Lancaster's My Fair Lazy all year! Thought I'd take a little French adventure with William Alexander's Flirting with French. And then it's off to England with Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island before his The Road to Little Dribbling comes out in January.  

I love diving into Pioneer Woman's huge cookbooks around the holidays. Such a feast for the eyes!

I chose Dad Is Fat for my December audiobook. And I picked up Leah Remini's Troublemaker about her years in Hollywood and leaving Scientology. I loved Remini in King of Queens, own the entire series, and have almost all of it memorized. And I'm just a sucker for a Hollywood memoir.

 

So, that's the list. What are you reading this month?

 

 

November 2015 Recap

 

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was small and quiet. We came to the table with thankful hearts and left with full bellies. I put the tree up this morning, and am taking off through Dec. 2 to read, reflect, and relax.

 

Where did the autumn go? It's all been a big blur for me. I've been trying to slow things down a bit, but the holidays are upon us, and I'm not at all ready for any of it. Sigh.

 

I'm putting the finishing touches on my December reading list and looking forward to my 2016 reading, too. I have a stockpile of titles I can't wait to get to! This winter will be a cozy, cozy time, I hope, full of adventure--if only of the mind.

 

One word reviews for my November reads below. December reading list to follow.

Adventurous

 

Fabulous

 

Unattached

 

Comfortable

 

Charming

Tedious

Flawed

Endearing

Perfect

Trying