Hello, BaWers! It's been a long time since I have been able to stop by, but I do so appreciate this space. As always, thank you, Robin, for bringing us together in this comfortable corner of the virtual living room. (1) Elsewhere, I participated in a discussion about an article by Simon Fraser University professor Hannah Macgregor, “Liking Books Is Not a Personality.” The piece is thought-provoking, and the conversation it inspired was terrific, too. My acquisition process has become more stringent with each passing year, and my weeding is rigorous, too. The shelf space is finite, so the volumes in the permanent collection either “spark joy” or serve the antilibrary definition ascribed to Umberto Eco early in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary. (Have you seen this clip of Eco walking through his vast collection? I first saw it via the wonderful Brain Pickings.) (2) My "Read from the shelves" challenge is going... sort of meh. I've read thirty-five books so far this year, and seventeen of those were already in my collection at the conclusion of 2018. Here's my list: January ■ The People in the Trees (Hanya Yanagihara; 2013. Fiction.) RFS ■ A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Peter Handke; 1972. Fiction.) RFS ■ Upgrade Soul (Ezra Claytan Daniels; 2016. Graphic fiction.) LIB ■ Fieldwork (Mischa Berlinski; 2007. Fiction.) RFS ■ Becoming (Michelle Obama; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ The Widower’s Notebook (Jonathan Santlofer; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig; 2015. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ Paper Girls, Vol. 5 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) LIB ■ Fear: Trump in the White House (Bob Woodward; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ The Shakespeare Requirement (Julie Schumacher; 2018. Fiction.) RFS February ■ Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning (Gary Marcus; 2012. Fiction.) RFS ■ Ghost Wall (Sarah Moss; 2018. Fiction.) LIB ■ A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family (Lou Ann Walker; 1986. Non-fiction.) ATY ■ Gone for Good (Harlan Coben; 2002. Fiction.) RFS ■ The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty (Simon Baron-Cohen; 2011. Non-fiction.) ATY ■ First, Learn to Practice (Tom Heany; 2012. Non-fiction.) ATY ■ The Current (Tom Johnston; 2019. Fiction.) LIB ■ How to Love Your Flute (Mark Shepard; 1979. Non-fiction.) LIB ■ The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut; 1959. Fiction.) RFS ■ Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Carlo Rovelli; 2014. Non-fiction.) RFS March ■ Man-eaters, Vol. 1 (Chelsea Cain; 2019. (Graphic fiction.) OTH ■ Paddle Your Own Canoe (Nick Offerman; 2013. Non-fiction.) LIB ■ Why Art? (Eleanor Davis; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.) LIB ■ The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides; 2019. Fiction.) ATY ■ The Walking Dead, Vol. 31 (Robert Kirkman; 2019. Graphic fiction.) OTH ■ All Systems Red (Martha Wells; 2017. Fiction.) LIB ■ Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal; 2016. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ Grass Kings, Vol. 2 (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) LIB ■ The Wall (John Lanchester; 2019. Fiction.) ATY ■ D’Aulaires Book of Norse Myths (Ingri Mortenson and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire; 1967. Fiction.) RFS ■ Sweat (Lynn Nottage; 2015. Drama.) LIB ■ Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman; 2017. Fiction.) RFS ■ The Orchid Thief (Susan Orlean; 1998. Non-fiction.) RFS April ■ The Stoy of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg; 2017. Fiction.) ATY ■ Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (Beth Macy; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ————————————— ATY Acquired this year LIB Borrowed from library OTH Other RFS Read from shelves (3) Here's what I'm reading right now: ● Ulysses (James Joyce; 1922) When I learned that Bloomsday would be part of Remy Bumppo’s 2018/19 season, I resolved to reread Ulysses. James A.W. Heffernan’s lectures (The Great Courses) will supplement my reading. ● Alliance, Illinois (David Etter; 1983) My National Poetry Month selection. ● To Walk the Night (William Sloane; 1937) My youngest and I are reading this. ● Charmed Particles (Chrissy Kolaya; 2015) Fermilab! How could I not read it? ● The Pigman (Paul Zindel; 1968) To complement the surprisingly delightful novel The Story of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg). ● Providence of a Sparrow: Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds (Chris Chester; 2002) My bird of the year is, once again, a house sparrow, so I remain optimistic about this. ● The Awakening (Kate Chopin; 1899) Selected as both my nod to The Great American Read and my 2018 Banned Book Week selection, this one, for no good reason, keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. (4) Finally, here are some passages that made their way into my commonplace book since my last BaW post. From Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Carlo Rovelli; 2014): p. 33 This is the world is described by quantum mechanics and particle theory. We have arrived very far from the mechanical world of Newton, where minute, cold stones eternally wandered on long, precise trajectories in geometrically immutable space. Quantum mechanics and experiments with particles have taught us that the world is a continuous, restless swarming of things, a continuous coming to light and disappearance of ephemeral entities. A set of vibrations, as in the switched-on hippie world of the 1960s. A world of happenings, not of things. p. 37 Physics is not only a history of successes. p. 63 Time sits at the center of the tangle of problems raised by the intersection of gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. A tangle of problems where we are still in the dark. If there is something that we are perhaps beginning to understand about quantum gravity that combines two of the three pieces of the puzzle, we do not yet have a theory capable of trying to gather all three pieces of our fundamental knowledge of the world. From The Story of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg; 2017): p. 14 Mr. Lyons’s first name is Royal. Maddy thinks that’s hysterical. She wishes she could ask him what’s up with that. Royal. He’s got white hair and he’s a little fat. Maddy likes people who are a little fat; it seems to her that they are approachable. He’s a little fat and he’s got awfully pale skin and the links of his wristwatch are twisted like bad teeth. He doesn’t care about such things. He cares about words. He taught her one of her favorite words: hiraeth, a Welsh word that means homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that maybe never was; it means nostalgia and yearning and grief for lost places. He used the word in a story that he read aloud to the class, and when he looked up, his eyes were full of tears. Nobody made fun of him after class, which was a miracle. Nobody said anything to her, anyway. Not that they would. She’s the girl who sits alone in the lunchroom, acting like her sandwich is fascinating. Or did. She skips lunch now. She doesn’t know exactly why kids don’t like her. She’s good-looking enough. She has a sense of humor. She’s not dumb. She guesses it’s because they can sense how much she needs them. They are like kids in a circle holding sticks, picking on the weak thing. It is in people to be entertained by cruelty. p. 18 Arthur thinks that, above all, aging means the abandonment of criticism and the taking on of compassionate acceptance. He sees that as a good trade. And anyway, Lucille makes those snickerdoodles, and she always packs some up for him to take home, and he eats them in bed, which is another thing he can do now, oh, sorrowful gifts. From The Wall (John Lanchester; 2019): p. 139 I suddenly got it. Hifa’s mother was one of those people who like life to be all about them. With the Change, that is a harder belief to sustain; it takes much more effort to think that life is about you when the whole of human life has turned upside down, when everything has been irrevocably changed for everyone. You can do it, of course you can, because people can do anything with their minds and their sense of themselves, but it takes work and only certain kinds of unusually self-centered people can do it. They want to be the focus of all the drama and pity and all the stories. I could tell that she didn’t like it that younger people are universally agreed to have had a worse deal than her generation. From Dopesick (Beth Macy; 2018): p. 125 Those of us living highly curated and time-strapped lives in cities across America — predominantly mixing virtually and physically with people whose views echoed our own — had no idea how politically and economically splintered our nation had become. And also how much poorer and sicker and work-starved they already struggling parts of the nation truly were — because we didn’t follow that story. We may feel more connected by our cellphones and computers, but in reality we are more divided that ever before.

Hello, BaWers! Are you all doing well? For “something new,” I will read Tim Johnston’s latest novel, The Current. Here’s my list to date. I’m doing so-so with my “Read from the shelves” plan. ■ The People in the Trees (Hanya Yanagihara; 2013. Fiction.) RFS ■ A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Peter Handke; 1972. Fiction.) RFS ■ Upgrade Soul (Ezra Claytan Daniels; 2016. Graphic fiction.) LIB ■ Fieldwork (Mischa Berlinski; 2007. Fiction.) RFS ■ Becoming (Michelle Obama; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ The Widower’s Notebook (Jonathan Santlofer; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig; 2015. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ Paper Girls (Brian K. Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) LIB ■ Fear: Trump in the White House (Bob Woodward; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS ■ The Shakespeare Requirement (Julie Schumacher; 2018. Fiction.) RFS ■ Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning (Gary Marcus; 2012. Fiction.) RFS ■ Ghost Wall (Sarah Moss; 2018. Fiction.) LIB ■ A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family (Sarah Moss; 1986. Fiction.) ATY ■ Gone for Good (Harlan Coben; 2002. Fiction.) RFS ————————————— ATY Acquired this year LIB Borrowed from library OTH Other RFS Read from shelves

Read minds. Carpet. Alone. A cabin in the woods steps from the beach. Think Maine.

Hello, BaWers! Over the winter break, my younger daughter borrowed my copy of the Halperin translation of Michael Bernanos’ wonderfully creepy and unforgettable The Other Side of the Mountain. * Mischa Berlinski’s Fieldwork caught my eye when I refiled it. What a perfect “Read from the shelves” selection: I received the review copy nearly twelve years ago! The book was good as Stephen King’s EW editorial promised, and it fits neatly onto the mental shelf where I recently placed two other novels about anthropology: Euphoria by Lily King (one of the best books I read last year) and The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara (disturbing content but excellently written). Since my last post, I also finished Upgrade Soul (Ezra Claytan Daniels; 2016), which I borrowed from the library. For those of you who are still resisting graphic works, especially those who enjoy speculative, dystopian, and/or science fiction, this would be a fabulous introduction to the graphic work form: deceptively simple art enriches a compelling and original story. Bonus: The protagonists are a vibrant, intelligent couple who have been married forty-five years. It has been a slow reading month, but many of my bookmarks are in the last quarter of their books, so I hope to add a few more to my list before month’s end. Sure, it would be easy to blame my discovery of Parks and Recreation on Prime Video for the paucity of books read, but I have also been walking more; and my winter break concluded a few days after my last post, so I have returned to work and to music lessons and practice. ASL studies and snow removal have also nibbled on my reading time. Okay, okay. Yeah. I’ve been gleefully enjoying Parks and Recreation episodes — not binge-ing but definitely choosing the series over a book. If you’re a fan, you probably understand. Color me chagrined. * I recently learned about another translation by Gio Clairval and have added it to my “Want to read” list.

Thank you, Negin. We have always lived in a library, but in the “forever home” it really became all that I had ever envisioned. During our homeschooling years, the collection swelled to nearly 11,000, but a cull before the move eight years ago and another three years later when we finished homeschooling brought it to what I think is a workable number. We lined the living room, the former piano room (where my desk now is), the hall, and the family room in floor to ceiling bookcases. These plus the shelves in the bedrooms can hold up to 10,000 volumes; the collection is currently about 7,200. With this many books, the rest of the house must be visually simple, so I had it painted the same color throughout. Anyway, here’s a pic of the view into the living room.

I did Shakespeare in a Year in 2017 and loved it! Your feelings about TA were shared by several in the FB group that hosted the 2017 challenge, by the way. I appreciated TA much more than I had thought I would, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy read. Even if one accepts the idea that the plot is willfully over-the-top, it’s still horrifying, and given the graphic sound effects in the Arkangel recording, I had unhappily anticipated close-ups of violence and bloodletting once I saw play. The film featuring Anthony Hopkins in the title role was, however, rather restrained, for which I was most grateful. Not all of the production choices appealed to me (frankly, I just didn’t understand a few), but overall, it earned a thumbs-up for both acting and restraint. Postscript: It’s neat to chat about TA right now because the Shakespeare Project is giving a reading next weekend.

Fourteen or so years ago, Haupt’s Rare Encounters introduced me to the “bird of the year” game. This year, I awoke to the sound of house sparrows in the bushes beneath my bedroom window. The window-hanging was slightly raised, so, to avoid seeing them, I squeezed my eyes shut, rolled to the other side of the bed, and went back to sleep. I admit: Yes, I’d like a crow or a blue jay. Is that too much to ask? Later, when I finally walked out into the living room, three cardinals, a house finch, and several dark-eyed juncos were at the feeding station, but what did I see first? House sparrows.

Happy New Year! On the nightstand: ● The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut; 1959) ● Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig; 2001) ● The People in the Trees (Hanya Yanagihara; 2013) ● The Awakening (Kate Chopin; 1899) ● Becoming (Michelle Obama; 2018) ● Fear (Bob Woodward; 2018) ● Dopesick (Beth Macy; 2018) And, as I shared in the previous thread, here’s my goal: In 2019, I will read one hundred books from my shelves (i.e., the books must have been in my collection before the end of 2018), including at least twenty-four non-fiction titles and at least one book from each of the following “special collections”: Shakespeare, poetry, NYRB, Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates, philosophy, art, and children’s / YA. Since I’ve been finishing between 120 and 150 books annually for the last few years, this goal leaves me a little room for impulsivity. And for folks who like this sort of thing, here’s a recent image of part of my library:

Regarding Goodreads... I’m betting you’ve discussed and shared this info before, but even though I may be late to the party, I would be delighted to join BaWers there. Since I’m a GR newbie, it may be easier for you to find me than for me to find you; I’m Nerdishly there. (And if I’m violating some sort of social rule, please gently correct me.) Hey, and a happy, healthy New Year to you all! To Robin, my ongoing appreciation for this thread. I may not make it every week, but I love that the reading room is here when I do.

The most engrossing books I read this year (not including rereads): ■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.) ■ An American Marriage (Tayari Jones; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Third Hotel (Laura van den Berg; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Euphoria (Lily King; 2014. Fiction.) Honorable mention: ■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Bel Canto (Ann Patchett; 2001. Fiction.) ■ Things We Lost in the Fire (Mariana Enriquez; 2017. Fiction.) Even better on rereading: ■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.) ■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.) ■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.) Forgot how wonderful this writer is: ■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.) For those who loved The Elementals (Michael McDowell; 1981): ■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.) Fabulous story for a long car trip: ■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.) Honorable mention: ■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.) Cannot stop talking about the ideas in these books: ■ Janesville: An American Story (Amy Goldstein; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (Alissa Quart; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Jessica Bruder; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (Sarah Smarsh; 2018. Non-fiction.) Even better than War and Peace: ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath (Sigrid Undset; 1920. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1997.) Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife (Sigrid Undset; 1921. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1999.) Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Sigrid Undset; 1922. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 2000.) Fiction.) Best graphic work I read this year: ■ The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt (Ken Krimstein; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.)

Hello again! I'm here to update and expand on my post from last week. With only two evenings remaining in the year, I’m not sure if I will finish any of the seven books I’m currently reading, so I am calling it at 138 books read this year. (As always, I have included only cover-to-covers.) Here are a few numbers: — 51 novels (not including graphic works) — 30 non-fiction works (32, including graphic works) — 13 plays — 1 poetry title (Virgil's Aeneid) — 43 graphic works (2 of which were non-fiction titles) And here are the standouts: Even better on rereading: ■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.) ■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.) ■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.) Forgot how wonderful this writer is: ■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.) For those who loved The Elementals (Michael McDowell; 1981): ■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.) Fabulous story for a long car trip: ■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.) Honorable mention: ■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.) The most engrossing books I read this year (not including rereads): ■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.) ■ An American Marriage (Tayari Jones; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Third Hotel (Laura van den Berg; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Euphoria (Lily King; 2014. Fiction.) Honorable mention: ■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Bel Canto (Ann Patchett; 2001. Fiction.) ■ Things We Lost in the Fire (Mariana Enriquez; 2017. Fiction.) Cannot stop talking about the ideas in these books: ■ Janesville: An American Story (Amy Goldstein; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (Alissa Quart; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Jessica Bruder; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (Sarah Smarsh; 2018. Non-fiction.) Even better than War and Peace: ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath (Sigrid Undset; 1920. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1997.) Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife (Sigrid Undset; 1921. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1999.) Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Sigrid Undset; 1922. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 2000.) Fiction.) Best graphic work I read this year: ■ The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt (Ken Krimstein; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.) Despite all of that great reading, I didn’t make much progress on my 2018 reading resolutions: 1. Read from the shelves. Of the 138 books I read cover-to-cover this year, 55 were published this year. So, yeah, “Read from the shelves” was a bust in 2018, but as I've mentioned, I have a plan: In 2019, I will read one hundred books from my shelves (i.e., the book must have been in my collection before the end of 2018), including at least twenty-four non-fiction titles and at least one book from each of the following “special collections”: Shakespeare, poetry, NYRB, Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates, philosophy, art, and children’s / YA. Since I’ve been finishing between 120 and 150 books annually for the last few years, this goal leaves me a little room for impulsivity. 2. Complete a close reading of Moby Dick. Next year marks the two hundredth anniversary of Herman Melville’s birth. I’m reading serendipity/synchronicity/synthesis into missing this goal because obviously it will be more fun to complete it in 2019, right? (Edited to add that I’ve read Moby Dick (conventionally, words on a page) once and listened to the spectacular audiobook (William Hootkins; 2004) dozens of times, but I would still like to reread it because it bears returning to. If you're up for it, please join me!) 3. Reread at least one Vonnegut novel. Sirens of Titan is part of my unfinished business. (By the way, my (tentative) 2019 selection is Player Piano.) 4. Finish reading several books abandoned in 2017 (or *gulp* earlier). Ayup. I am a shamelessly promiscuous reader, good books don’t deserve such treatment, and I will do better. 5. Read at least thirty non-fiction titles. Twenty-six was been my goal in the past, so I raised the bar this year. It’s the only resolution I kept. This year, I read 32 non-fiction books, two of which were graphic works. My 2018 list: January ■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.) ■ An Enemy of the People (Henrikson Ibsen; 1882. Drama.) ■ The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Margareta Magnusson; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Perfect Nanny (Leila Sliman; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Saga, Volume 8 (Brian Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Postal, Volume 6 (Matt Hawkins; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Bitch Planet: Triple Feature, Volume 1 (Kelly Sue DeConnick; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Descender, Volume 5: Rise of the Robots (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (Paul Tremblay; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Fire and Fury (Michael Wolff; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ You Deserve Nothing (Alexander Maksik; 2011. Fiction.) ■ The Woman in the Window (A.J. Finn; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Inheritors (Susan Glaspell; 1921. Drama.) February ■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Shelter in Place (Alexander Maksik; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.) ■ Landscape with Invisible Hand (M.T. Anderson; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Emilie (Lauren Gunderson; 2010. Drama.) ■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.) ■ Alive, Alive Oh! (Diana Athill; 2016. Non-fiction.) March ■ Briggs Land, Volume 2: Lone Wolves (Brian Wood; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dead People Suck (Laurie Kilmartin; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Instead of a Letter (Diana Athill; 1962. Non-fiction.) ■ The Walking Dead, Volume 29: Lines We Cross (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ A Moon for the Misbegotten (Eugene O’Neill; 1947. Drama.) ■ Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller; 1800. (Trans. Peter Oswald; 2006.) Drama.) ■ Educated (Tara Westover; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Candide (Voltaire; 1759. (Trans. John Butt; 1947.) Fiction.) ■ hang (debbie tucker green; 2015. Drama.) ■ Dying (Cory Taylor; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.) ■ Injection, Vol. 3 (Warren Ellis; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Letter 44, Vol. 5: Blueshift (Charles Soule; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Letter 44, Vol. 6: The End (Charles Soule; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Exit West (Mohsin Hamid; 2017. Fiction.) April ■ Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng; 2014. Fiction.) ■ Black Hammer, Vol. 1: The End (Jeff Lemire; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Female Persuasion (Meg Wolitzer; 2018. Fiction.) ■ If We Were Villians (M.L. Rio; 2017. Fiction.) ■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Fractured (Catherine McKenzie; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Harmony (Carolyn Parkhurst; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Lazarus X+66: The End (Greg Rucka; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ With or Without You (Domenica Ruta; 2013. Non-fiction.) May ■ I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This (Nadja Spiegelman; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ A Higher Loyalty (James Comey; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Rules Do Not Apply (Ariel Levy; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ The Best We Could Do (Thi Bui; 2017. Graphic non-fiction.) ■ The Perfect Mother (Aimee Molloy; 2018. Fiction.) June ■ Red Clocks (Leni Zumas; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.) ■ Suddenly, Last Summer (Tennessee Williams; 1958. Drama.) ■ Sometimes I Lie (Alice Feeney; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Buried Child (Sam Shepherd; 1978. Drama.) ■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Macbeth (William Shakespeare; 1606. Drama.) ■ Royal City, Vol. 2: Sonic Youth (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (Patty Yumi Cottrell; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Macbeth (Hogarth Shakespeare) (Jo Nesbø; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Hamlet (William Shakespeare; 1602. Drama.) ■ The Lying Game (Ruth Ware; 2017. Fiction.) ■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.) July ■ Papergirls, Vol. 4 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned (Brian K. Vaughan; 2003. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Cabin at the End of the World (Paul Tremblay; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Bel Canto (Ann Patchett; 2001. Fiction.) ■ Victims of Duty (Eugène Ionesco; 1953. Drama.) ■ Redlands, Vol. 1 (Jordie Bellaire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Give Me Your Hand (Megan Abbott; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Alone (Chabouté; 2008 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ An American Marriage (Tayari Jones; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Janesville: An American Story (Amy Goldstein; 2016. Non-fiction.) August ■ Mockingbird, Vol. 1: I Can Explain (Chelsea Cain; 2016. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mockingbird, Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (Chelsea Cain; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Park Bench (Chabouté; 2012 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (Kieran Setiya; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne; 1870. (Trans. Anthony Bonner; 1962.) Fiction.) ■ Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (Alissa Quart; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Outsider (Stephen King; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Jessica Bruder; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery (Andrew Shaffer; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Things We Lost in the Fire (Mariana Enriquez; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Outcast, Vol. 6 (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Aeneid (Virgil. (Trans. Robert Fagles; 2006.) Poetry.) ■ When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead; 2009. Fiction.) ■ Proof (David Auburn; 2001. Drama.) ■ Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (Chabouté; 2014 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ The Soul of an Octopus (Sy Montgomery; 2015. Non-fiction.) September ■ The Children (Lucy Kirkwood; 2016. Drama.) ■ Vox (Christina Dalcher; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Water Cure (Sophie Mackintosh; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 1: Murder Six Miles Deep (Matt Kindt; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Walking Dead, Volume 30: New World Order (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ His Favorites (Kate Walbert; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Incendiaries (R.O. Kwon; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath (Sigrid Undset; 1920. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1997.) Fiction.) ■ The Devoted (Blair Hurley; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Grass Kings, Volume 1: New World Order (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Descender, Volume 6: The Machine War (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 2: After the Flood (Matt Kindt; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 3: Decompressed (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Beverly (Nick Drnaso; 2016. Graphic fiction.) October ■ Saga, Volume 9 (Brian Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Third Hotel (Laura van den Berg; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife (Sigrid Undset; 1921. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1999.) Fiction.) ■ Postal, Volume 7 (Matt Hawkins; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ When She Woke (Hillary Jordan; 2011. Fiction.) ■ Gorilla and the Bird (Zack McDermott; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Gideon Falls, Volume 1: The Black Barn (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Sigrid Undset; 1922. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 2000.) Fiction.) November ■ Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom (Ken Ilgunas; 2013. Non-fiction.) ■ Mansfield Park (Jane Austen; 1814. Fiction.) ■ The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt (Ken Krimstein; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.) ■ Oblivion Song, Volume 1 (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Royal City, Vol. 3: We All Float On (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Woods (Harlan Coben; 2007. Fiction.) ■ The Heretic’s Daughter (Kathleen Kent; 2008. Fiction.) ■ The Sculptor (Scott McCloud; 2015. Graphic fiction.) ■ Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (Sarah Smarsh; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying (Sallie Tisdale; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Sabrina (Nick Drnaso; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Lost Dogs (Jeff Lemire; 2005; reissued, 2012. Graphic fiction.) December ■ Hazards of Time Travel (Joyce Carol Oates; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (Scott and Kimberly Hahn Carreyrou; 1993. Non-fiction.) ■ Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ On Living (Kerry Egan; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Euphoria (Lily King; 2014. Fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 4: Lifeboat (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents (Pete Souza; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Home after Dark (David Small; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Daily Stoic (Ryan Holiday; 2016. Non-fiction.)

Hello, BaWers! At this writing, I've finished 133 books. A few stats: -- 51 novels -- 31 non-fiction works, 2 of which were graphic works -- 39 graphic works, 2 of which were non-fiction -- 13 plays -- 1 work of poetry (Virgil’s Aeneid) Of the 133 books, 51 were published in 2018 (!!), which is what prompted my "Read from the shelves challenge" for 2019. I will read one hundred books from my shelves, including at least twenty-four non-fiction titles and at least one book from each of the following “special collections”: Shakespeare, poetry, NYRB, Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates, philosophy, art, and children’s / YA. Since I’ve been finishing between 120 and 150 books annually for the last few years, this goal leaves me a little room for impulsivity. My 2018 list follows. I'm reading Pete Souza's Shade, Hanya Yanagihara's The People in the Trees, and Michelle Obama's Becoming. 'hard to know if I'll have time to finish any, though. January ■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.) ■ An Enemy of the People (Henrikson Ibsen; 1882. Drama.) ■ The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Margareta Magnusson; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Perfect Nanny (Leila Sliman; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Saga, Volume 8 (Brian Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Postal, Volume 6 (Matt Hawkins; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Bitch Planet: Triple Feature, Volume 1 (Kelly Sue DeConnick; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Descender, Volume 5: Rise of the Robots (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (Paul Tremblay; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Fire and Fury (Michael Wolff; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ You Deserve Nothing (Alexander Maksik; 2011. Fiction.) ■ The Woman in the Window (A.J. Finn; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Inheritors (Susan Glaspell; 1921. Drama.) February ■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Shelter in Place (Alexander Maksik; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.) ■ Landscape with Invisible Hand (M.T. Anderson; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Emilie (Lauren Gunderson; 2010. Drama.) ■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.) ■ Alive, Alive Oh! (Diana Athill; 2016. Non-fiction.) March ■ Briggs Land, Volume 2: Lone Wolves (Brian Wood; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dead People Suck (Laurie Kilmartin; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Instead of a Letter (Diana Athill; 1962. Non-fiction.) ■ The Walking Dead, Volume 29: Lines We Cross (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ A Moon for the Misbegotten (Eugene O’Neill; 1947. Drama.) ■ Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller; 1800. (Trans. Peter Oswald; 2006.) Drama.) ■ Educated (Tara Westover; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Candide (Voltaire; 1759. (Trans. John Butt; 1947.) Fiction.) ■ hang (debbie tucker green; 2015. Drama.) ■ Dying (Cory Taylor; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.) ■ Injection, Vol. 3 (Warren Ellis; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Letter 44, Vol. 5: Blueshift (Charles Soule; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Letter 44, Vol. 6: The End (Charles Soule; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Exit West (Mohsin Hamid; 2017. Fiction.) April ■ Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng; 2014. Fiction.) ■ Black Hammer, Vol. 1: The End (Jeff Lemire; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Female Persuasion (Meg Wolitzer; 2018. Fiction.) ■ If We Were Villians (M.L. Rio; 2017. Fiction.) ■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Fractured (Catherine McKenzie; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Harmony (Carolyn Parkhurst; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Lazarus X+66: The End (Greg Rucka; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ With or Without You (Domenica Ruta; 2013. Non-fiction.) May ■ I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This (Nadja Spiegelman; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ A Higher Loyalty (James Comey; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Rules Do Not Apply (Ariel Levy; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ The Best We Could Do (Thi Bui; 2017. Graphic non-fiction.) ■ The Perfect Mother (Aimee Molloy; 2018. Fiction.) June ■ Red Clocks (Leni Zumas; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.) ■ Suddenly, Last Summer (Tennessee Williams; 1958. Drama.) ■ Sometimes I Lie (Alice Feeney; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Buried Child (Sam Shepherd; 1978. Drama.) ■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.) ■ Macbeth (William Shakespeare; 1606. Drama.) ■ Royal City, Vol. 2: Sonic Youth (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (Patty Yumi Cottrell; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Macbeth (Hogarth Shakespeare) (Jo Nesbø; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Hamlet (William Shakespeare; 1602. Drama.) ■ The Lying Game (Ruth Ware; 2017. Fiction.) ■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.) July ■ Papergirls, Vol. 4 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned (Brian K. Vaughan; 2003. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Cabin at the End of the World (Paul Tremblay; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Bel Canto (Ann Patchett; 2001. Fiction.) ■ Victims of Duty (Eugène Ionesco; 1953. Drama.) ■ Redlands, Vol. 1 (Jordie Bellaire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Give Me Your Hand (Megan Abbott; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Alone (Chabouté; 2008 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ An American Marriage (Tayari Jones; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Janesville: An American Story (Amy Goldstein; 2016. Non-fiction.) August ■ Mockingbird, Vol. 1: I Can Explain (Chelsea Cain; 2016. Graphic fiction.) ■ Mockingbird, Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (Chelsea Cain; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Park Bench (Chabouté; 2012 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (Kieran Setiya; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne; 1870. (Trans. Anthony Bonner; 1962.) Fiction.) ■ Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (Alissa Quart; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ The Outsider (Stephen King; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Jessica Bruder; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery (Andrew Shaffer; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Things We Lost in the Fire (Mariana Enriquez; 2017. Fiction.) ■ Outcast, Vol. 6 (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Aeneid (Virgil. (Trans. Robert Fagles; 2006.) Poetry.) ■ When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead; 2009. Fiction.) ■ Proof (David Auburn; 2001. Drama.) ■ Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (Chabouté; 2014 (2017, English). Graphic fiction.) ■ The Soul of an Octopus (Sy Montgomery; 2015. Non-fiction.) September ■ The Children (Lucy Kirkwood; 2016. Drama.) ■ Vox (Christina Dalcher; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Water Cure (Sophie Mackintosh; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 1: Murder Six Miles Deep (Matt Kindt; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Walking Dead, Volume 30: New World Order (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ His Favorites (Kate Walbert; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Incendiaries (R.O. Kwon; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath (Sigrid Undset; 1920. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1997.) Fiction.) ■ The Devoted (Blair Hurley; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Grass Kings, Volume 1: New World Order (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Descender, Volume 6: The Machine War (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 2: After the Flood (Matt Kindt; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 3: Decompressed (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Beverly (Nick Drnaso; 2016. Graphic fiction.) October ■ Saga, Volume 9 (Brian Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Third Hotel (Laura van den Berg; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife (Sigrid Undset; 1921. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1999.) Fiction.) ■ Postal, Volume 7 (Matt Hawkins; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ When She Woke (Hillary Jordan; 2011. Fiction.) ■ Gorilla and the Bird (Zack McDermott; 2017. Non-fiction.) ■ Gideon Falls, Volume 1: The Black Barn (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Sigrid Undset; 1922. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 2000.) Fiction.) November ■ Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom (Ken Ilgunas; 2013. Non-fiction.) ■ Mansfield Park (Jane Austen; 1814. Fiction.) ■ The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt (Ken Krimstein; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.) ■ Oblivion Song, Volume 1 (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Royal City, Vol. 3: We All Float On (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Woods (Harlan Coben; 2007. Fiction.) ■ The Heretic’s Daughter (Kathleen Kent; 2008. Fiction.) ■ The Sculptor (Scott McCloud; 2015. Graphic fiction.) ■ Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (Sarah Smarsh; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying (Sallie Tisdale; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ Sabrina (Nick Drnaso; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ Lost Dogs (Jeff Lemire; 2005; reissued, 2012. Graphic fiction.) December ■ Hazards of Time Travel (Joyce Carol Oates; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (Scott and Kimberly Hahn Carreyrou; 1993. Non-fiction.) ■ Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou; 2018. Non-fiction.) ■ On Living (Kerry Egan; 2016. Non-fiction.) ■ Euphoria (Lily King; 2018. Fiction.)

A relative was always pressing this book or that on me and then asking how I liked it. She got it right once, when she bought me a book I already owned. Heh, heh, heh. Some of the choices were just so odd, too: An autobiography of one of the Marx brothers? A maudlin chick lit book? A book of parenting aphorisms... when all of my children are over eighteen? Insert head shaking. Oh, I forgot! She got it right one other time! Sort of. I had received a number of books as a prize from a publisher. After reading those that I appealed to me, I gathered all of the selections, as well as several novels weeded from my personal library. I asked if she’d like any; she took them all. A couple of years later, we met for lunch. Oh, I have a bag of books for you! Great, I thought. She hands me two grocery bags of battered books, all of which had been in the box I gave her years before. Oh, you didn’t have to return these, I said (especially in such bad condition, I thought). What do you mean? These are the books I gave you, from the publisher and my collection. I don’t think so, she said with a huff. Sigh. I make a wishlist for my husband and daughters, and when others ask, I suggest a bookstore gift card or Amazon.

#129 Hazards of Time Travel (Joyce Carol Oates; 2018. Fiction.)#130 Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (Scott and Kimberly Hahn Carreyrou; 1993. Non-fiction.)#131 Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou; 2018. Non-fiction.)#132 On Living (Kerry Egan; 2016. Non-fiction.) Lily King’s Euphoria will be #133, and, wow, is my reading year closing strong! Bad Blood and Euphoria are unputdownable; and On Living is beautiful: p. 180When someone tells you the story of their suffering, they are probably still suffering in some way. No one else gets to decide what that suffering means, or if it has any meaning at all. And we sure as hell don’t get to tell someone that God never gives anybody more than they can handle or that God has a plan. We do not get to cut off someone’s suffering at the pass by telling them it has some greater purpose. Only they get to decide if that’s true. All we can do is sit and listen to them tell their stories, if they want to tell them. And if they don’t, we can sit with them in silence.

Today I reached 121 books read this year. Twenty-six of those are non-fiction works, which means I am only four books from my goal of thirty. Speaking of non-fiction… from Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom (Ken Ilgunas): p. 74 It never failed: When I’d gaze at the stars and the aurora, I’d see my problems for what they were. I always told myself that I’d been under the control of other forces: parents, school, work. And I’d convinced myself that my debt was to blame for everything as if I had nothing to do with contracting the debt in the first place). I hated my job even though I worked for a wonderful company. And I told myself that, because of the debt, I couldn’t travel, couldn’t go back to school, and now couldn’t even leave my room. Part of me liked being in debt. Part of me even wanted to stay in debt, to keep going on random and expensive three-week trips to places like Ecuador so I could spend my hard-earned dollars on halfhearted adventures, instead of staying focused on what should have remained my true goal: busting out of the great American debtors’ prison, steadily chipping away at its walls with each paycheck. Part of me like being in that position of submission, tied up in leather, willfully cowering beneath a ruthless whip-wielding Sallie Mae. Life is simpler when we feel controlled. When we tell ourselves that we are controlled, we can shift the responsibility of freeing ourselves onto that which controls us. When we do that, we don’t have to bear the responsibility for our own unhappiness or shoulder the burden of self-ownership. We don’t have to do anything. And nothing will ever change. Also on the subject of non-fiction… I loved Krimstein’s The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt. What a fabulous introduction to the philosopher’s life and work! Good customer service story: My copy of Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (Elisabeth Young-Bruehl), ordered not long after I finished The Three Escapes, arrived with a bent cover and chipped pages. Hoping for a modest discount, I wrote to customer service, and Amazon refunded the entire cost of the book.

For such a meticulously researched and narratively old-fashioned work, KL seems wonderfully “fresh.” And how familiar, perhaps how universal, her core experiences are: the heart wants what it wants, regardless of what family, friends, and faith may prescribe; the head may regret, even before the bed cools; motherhood reshapes a woman’s body and mind; not men, nor children, nor work can change a woman’s essential and secret self; remaining on nodding terms with that self is a source of strength in old age. I need a clearer head to offer more, but, golly, I’m glad to have read the trilogy. Thanks again, Robin.

Since last week, I finished: 114 Gorilla and the Bird (Zack McDermott; 2017. Non-fiction.)115 Gideon Falls, Volume 1: The Black Barn (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.)116 Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Sigrid Undset; 1922. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 2000.) Fiction.) Oh, Robin! Thank you for the KL readalong! I LOVED the trilogy and have been raving about it to family, friends, and colleagues.

Hello! In the month since I last posted, I've read another ten books, including ■ The Third Hotel (Laura van den Berg; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife (Sigrid Undset; 1921. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1999.) Fiction.) ■ When She Woke (Hillary Jordan; 2011. Fiction.) This puts me at 113 for a year-to-date total. Speaking of Kristin Lavransdatter, I will finish Part II of The Cross this afternoon. What a riveting story! I have active bookmarks in more books than I can list -- among them, Sirens of Titan (Vonnegut), Gorilla and the Bird (McDermott), and Walden on Wheels (Ilgunas). Advice to Future Corpses (Tisdale) just came in for me at the library, and I continue to acquire books at rate that significantly outpaces my ability to read them. But that's okay.

Hello, BaWers! Robin, wow! Thank you again for organizing the KL readalong! I finished Part I of The Wife last night. (Edited to add: I guess I am a bit ahead... for now. Music studies, a MOOC, an ASL course, and work may, at any time, cause me to fall behind, so I am glad for a running start.) Fans of A Common Reader (R.I.P.) may remember their expression, "a thumping good read." Well, that's KL in a phrase, isn't it? Since my last BaW appearance, I have finished nine books: ■ The Children (Lucy Kirkwood; 2016. Drama.) ■ Vox (Christina Dalcher; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Water Cure (Sophie Mackintosh; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Dept. H, Vol. 1: Murder Six Miles Deep (Matt Kindt; 2017. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Walking Dead, Volume 30: New World Order (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ His Favorites (Kate Walbert; 2018. Fiction.) ■ The Incendiaries (R.O. Kwon; 2018. Fiction.) ■ Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath (Sigrid Undset; 1920. (Trans. Tiina Nunnally; 1997.) Fiction.) ■ The Devoted (Blair Hurley; 2018. Fiction.) This puts me at 103, for a year-to-date total. My Banned Books Weeks selection is The Awakening (Kate Chopin). It has been thirty-plus years since I first read it. I wonder how it will hold up. I am thisclose to finishing The Third Hotel ( Laura van den Berg), and Fear (Bob Woodward), among other titles, is on my nightstand.

This ended up on my "recently acquired" stack after I read a review in The Economist... now where did I put that book? EDITED: Ah! Found it!

Hello, BaWers! Robin, thanks, as always, for gathering us together. Here are my notes since my last BaW post: From Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: p. 190 In casual Western conversation, karma is used interchangeably with destiny, kismet, luck, and fate. Bill had chosen the name while still in the grip of what felt to us all like a star-crossed tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. During the Elizabethan era, most Europeans believed each person’s fate was predetermined, hardwired by the positions of the planets and the stars. Some people still do. But the idea of karma has a deeper, more promising, meaning than that of fate. Karma can help us develop wisdom and compassion. In Hinduism, karma is a path to reaching the state of Brahman, the highest god, the Universal Self, the World Soul. Our karma is something over which, unlike fate, we do have control. “Volition is karma,” the Buddha is reported to have said. Karma is not fate, but, in fact, its opposite: Karma is choice. —————- I was hooked by page six, when Montgomery reminds readers of the octopus in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Synchronicity, serendipity, synthesis. My last entry for August, The Soul of an Octopus was the ninety-fourth book I finished reading so far this year and the twenty-third title in my quest to read at least thirty non-fiction titles in 2018. Last month, I also (finally!) finished The Aeneid, and during the drive down to visit my youngest yesterday, I listened to the remaining lectures in Elizabeth Vandiver’s The Aeneid of Virgil. I have nearly finished this week’s readalong objective: Part 1 of The Wreath (seven chapters). It was easy to become absorbed in this old-fashioned but well-told story. I will likely finish The Children, a play by Lucy Kirkwood, this holiday weekend and The Third Hotel, a new novel by Laura van den Berg, a little later this week. Another new release, Vox (Christina Dalcher), is also on my nightstand. Derivative, flawed, and strictly plot-driven, it may be done sooner than the atmospheric and disturbing Hotel, which I find I must set aside periodically — not unlike my experience with the brilliant Things We Lost in the Fire. Perhaps I need time to think about the images and ideas the writers have presented; or maybe, more accurately, I need to look away for a bit.

Hello, BaWers! Robin, thank you for putting together the readalong! Since my last post, I've finished the following: ■ The Outsider (Stephen King; 2018. Fiction.) Meh. ■ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Jessica Bruder; 2017. Non-fiction.) Formed part of a sobering trilogy for me: Janesville, Squeezed, and Nomadland. ■ Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery (Andrew Shaffer; 2018. Fiction.) Silly and fun. My older daughter and I listened to this while walking and running errands. ■ Things We Lost in the Fire (Mariana Enriquez; 2017. Fiction.) From Amazon: " Written in hypnotic prose that gives grace to the grotesque, Things We Lost in the Fire is a powerful exploration of what happens when our darkest desires are left to roam unchecked, and signals the arrival of an astonishing and necessary voice in contemporary fiction." ■ Outcast, Vol. 6 (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.) ■ The Aeneid (Virgil. (Trans. Robert Fagles; 2006.) Poetry.) Finally finished. ■ When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead; 2009. Fiction.) Beautiful Newbery Award winner that reminded why I love to read. ■ Proof (David Auburn; 2001. Drama.) I agree with my daughter: It must be the cast that elevates this material because you know the conclusion by page three. That puts me at ninety-two books read to date. In addition to KL, I am currently reading The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg.

September sounds wonderful! Your suggested reading plan for W&P was so helpful. Will you be preparing one for KL? Thanks for revisiting this readalong.