Countries Visited This Year in My Reading

I love to read global nonfiction. History, family travel, living abroad, politics and foreign policy—they’re all favorite topics of mine. This year is the third year I’ve tracked my progress around the world with this handy map creator. Since I don’t travel in reality, I created a map of where I’ve traveled “virtually.”

 

Countries visited in 2015:

 

Argentina

Brazil
Canada
China
Falkland Islands
France
Germany
Grenada
India
Indonesia
Ireland
(modern day) Israel
Italy
Japan
Poland
Russia
United Kingdom
United States of America 



Countries visited 2013-2015:

Top 11 Stinkers of 2015

I realize this is probably a very Scrooge-like (I can use that reference in good conscience now that I've read A Christmas Carol) thing to do. But at the end of every year everyone puts out a Top Ten List of their best reads. I do too, of course, and I look forward to doing it all year. And I love looking at other folks' Top Tens. But no one ever talks about the books that wasted their time during the year.

I don't like to be negative for the sake of being negative, and that's not what this list is. Consider it a holiday present to you in case you're thinking about adding any of these to your 2016 book list. You're welcome.

This is a completely arbitrary list of books that swung and missed this year. I realize some people love some of these books. I didn't. They weren't particularly poorly written, either. But I can't help it, I have to be honest.

First up, A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. About halfway through this book, I realized I'd probably read it before, but it left no lasting memory. Even now, I don't remember what it was about, and it hasn't been a whole year since I re-read it.

I'm nearly convinced that there are two Bill Brysons writing books nowadays. One--the one I adore--wrote One Summer: America, 1927, and the one who wrote this book and dozens of goofy, boring travel books. And yet, I read them all because I'm unsure which Bryson I'm getting.

I don't know why I picked this up other than everyone else seemed to be reading it at the time. I don't like books about illness and phobias, so I had no business reading this. It's my own fault that it's on my list.

Okay. This book. This book that the whole world anticipated and that sort of bombed spectacularly. There's a lot to this book, but it's not a book about racism. That's what frustrates me so much about all the reviews of it. The people calling it a book about racism are the same folks who think Republicans hate Muslims and that's why they want to refuse Syrian refugees asylum until they can be verified. This book is about traditionalism vs. progressivism. It's about doing things in a logical sequence. I don't dislike the book so much as the divide I see when I look at peoples' reaction to it.

I'm always looking for a new fabulous memoir. Even a mediocre one would do. This book, however, was neither. (Although I love the cover.)

Okay. *chagrin* This is my second time reading this book. The first time, I loved it and couldn't figure out why so many people hated it. This time through? I got it. Oh my goodness. I almost didn't finish it this time. The movie remains one of my favorite movies ever, but not the book.

I disliked this book viscerally. I really gave it a chance, too. I have a high tolerance for skimpy plots, but this one was just awful in my humble opinion. I didn't like any of the characters or care what happened to them, no one grew emotionally or had a change of heart, and that's the greatest blunder a novelist can make in my mind.

This was a terrible collection of poetry. It's bee years since I've gone through one of these collections, and after this, it will likely be many more before I go through another one. I was interested in this one because it was edited by Kevin Young, whose anthologies I tend to adore. Hey, maybe this was edited by that other Bill Bryson!

Joan Rivers was never my favorite comedienne, but I enjoyed her and loved her audaciousness. But this book wasn't a tribute to her, it was a forum for her daughter Melissa to show us how (not) funny she is. There wasn't a serious line in the book other than a couple lines that were direct quotes from Joan Rivers herself.

It pains me to include a book by Michael Perry on my stinkers list, but here it is. I'd never read anything by Mike but nonfiction, which I maintain is the finest in the publishing world. I expected this book to be fun, not very serious, just a good lighthearted romp. But it was preposterous and took some moral turns I wasn't quite comfortable with.

And last but not least, one of the bestselling books of 2015! I knew this one was going to be a crapshoot for me. I'm rather unfamiliar with Amy Poehler, but I went in with a completely open mind. Turns out I needed more than that. Let's just say Amy and I have nothing in common and likely wouldn't have a good time together. I'm glad others enjoyed the book, but for me, it made me think way, way less of her.

 

There you have it, my Bah Humbugs of 2015.

 

What would you add to the list? Comment below.

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):