2018 Wrap Up

Hello, friends. It is I, the supremely late Sonnet, rolling into this review post on April 2, a full 3 months past the New Year. It has been quite a wild ride, though, so I'm only a little mad that I'm so late! Definitely planning on making more of a concerted effort to schedule myself this year, though. (Shut up, I don't say that every year...) Anyway, here are some quick thoughts (and hot links) on the books I read for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge!

She Came By The Book by Mary Wings
January - mystery by LGBTQ+ or POC author
I said it in my main review and I'll say it again: any book that starts with "As a lesbian..." is bound to be an interesting one for me. I loved discovering Mary Wings' work at the Affirmations book sale, and I loved that the queer part of the story was just as important as the actual mystery.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
January - celebrity memoir
Space Mom! You were too good for us, and I hope we do you proud. I loved getting a peek into Carrie Fisher's young mind, the raw honesty and cleverness.

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
February - female protagonist over age 60
I love Miss Marple. I want to be an old lady knitting and solving mysteries and unobtrusively telling everyone she's smarter than them. Not in so many words, of course.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
February - social sciences
Ijeoma Oluo is one of my go-to writers now, when I want to try to understand something powerful that is happening in the world. Everyone should read this book, but especially white people. R E A D  I T .

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
March - Oprah Book Club selection
Hamlet in the Midwest! I am a sucker for retellings, especially ones that stretch the conceivable bounds for a retelling. Don't get me wrong, I'll read Beauty and the Beast in a slightly different European forest all day, but take a Danish monarchical tragedy and put it in rural Wisconsin? Sold.

The Power by Naomi Alderman
March - sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
Can you imagine what it would be like for women to be suddenly infused with the terrifying power and strength to take the world back? No? Maybe read this book then? (And also, like, a lot of other books. Work on your imagination, bro.)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi  (Legacy of Orisha #1)
April - first in a new-to-you YA series
I can't keep saying "I love this book" and move on to the next blurb. But I love this book. Sure, I have some quibbles, so I made everyone I know read it so I could argue with them about it, but overall, Blood and Bone is so important in terms of representation and expansion of pan-African influences in young adult media and Tomi did a bang-up job. Waiting on #2 now. . .

Monstress Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu
April - comic written or illustrated by a POC
Unreliable narrators who are possibly also a little evil, paired with an art style dense with line and emotion, in a matriarchal version of Feudal Japan.

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
May - true crime
Wow, it took a long time to get to the actual murder! But I know more about transatlantic communication (also skin removal) than I ever thought I wanted to know.

Moonstruck! Vol 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, and Kate Leth
May - one-sitting read
I read this queer graphic novel in bed on my birthday and I think that pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Cozy and happy and gay.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
June - post/colonial literature
This is a pretty famous pivot in literature, telling a famous story from a minor character's perspective, and I very much enjoyed this addition to Jane Eyre, one of my favorite novels. The play with point of view alone in this book really resonates.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
June- published posthumously
I knew whatever book I chose for this was going to be rough, and I decided to just put myself through the ringer for this one. My father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last March, and so of course I decided to read a book about a man who died from (brain) cancer and wrote about his experience. This was a beautiful, raw little book and it solidified a lot of things for me.

Double Bind: Women On Ambition ed. by Robin Romm
July - essay anthology
Am I ambitious? What does that even mean? I really dug deep with this one, asking myself the same questions all the contributors asked in the penning of their essays. Is ambition motivation? Follow-through? Drive? Success? Can it waver, and come back? I'm working on it.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
July - children's classic written before 1980
I've always loved The Neverending Story the movie and long since thought I should read the book. The book was interesting, the movie only covers the first half of it, and honestly I'm glad, because second half Bastian suuuuucks.

The Revolution of Marina M by Janet Fitch
August - book about a BRICS country (Russia)
Wow this was a TOME. A thicc introspective dive into the Russian Revolution. I fell in love with Marina, and my heart hurt for every one of the zillion heartbreaking things that happened to her in an inconceivably short amount of time. This is the kind of book that made me want to write historical fiction.

What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses by Daniel Chamovitz
August - book about nature
I work for Backyard Brains, and I plucked this book off our office library shelf. We recently started doing experiments with plants, and this book is essentially the backbone of our research with them. How can we understand plants in a way that translates to understanding ourselves as people?

Yellowthroat by Penny Hayes 
September - western
Two words. Lesbian. Western. Need I say more? Sure, there were some sleepy tropes, but ultimately I was happy that the author did not live there, in those tropes that are unfortunately still all too common in queer media.

Ash by Malinda Lo
September - romance novel by/about a POC
Did I mention that I love retellings? And queer things? And this was a queer fairy tale retelling?

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
October - genre fiction in translation
John Ajvide Lindqvist is consistently an author who gives me the creeps in absolutely the best way. He makes the horror so banal and close to home that you cannot distance yourself from it at all.

Heat Wave by Richard Castle
October - book with a cover you hate
I love Castle, and I love that they ghostwrote this book by Castle! It was so on-brand for the show and I truly got confused between cases on the show and the case in this book. Oops!

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
November - assigned book you never finished
I did it! I finished the behemoth! I learned so many words, some of which are not real words, and I think I maybe followed most of what happened, but I think part of the point of Infinite Jest is that you maybe don't fully understand it.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
November - comic written and drawn by the same person
I am literally so excited for the 2020 adaptation of this. Noelle Stevenson is such goals!

The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
December - classic of genre fiction
SO. MUCH. RAGE. Just click through and read my tweets. It's touted as a classic, but I had too many problems with it for it to land on my favorites list.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Book One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack
December - graphic novel not published by Marvel, DC, or Image
Spooky teenage girls with powers! Netflix adaptations with badass ladies!

One of my goals for 2019 is to be better about scheduling time for myself to write, especially about the things I love. I went through bouts where I didn't write at all about these books, and there are gaps in my posting. This is just for me, I'm sure, but I want to be more organized in 2019. I really love the heightened challenge of two books and reviews a month, but I think I still need to get my groove.

That being said, this year was pretty great personally. I bought a house with my love and we just started our first major renovation project on it; I skated multiple games for the charter team and I'm hoping to amp up my track time for 2019; I started training for a strongwoman competition (finally), I finished NaNoWriMo (though not the draft of my novel!).

Previous years:

~ 2017 ~ 2016 ~ 2015 ~ 2014 ~ 2013 ~

Recap 2017: 5 Years of Challenges

Whew! This is my fifth year of self-assigned reading, guys. It was my first year doing Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, since the Eclectic Reader Challenge I had been doing before had not posted anything by the time I wanted to start organizing last December! It was a big step up, reading and writing about two books a month instead of one, and honestly the lines between months have bled as I have been busy and have also allowed myself to read and do other things for fun. Thus, this 2017 year recap is late, as were December's reviews. But! Better late than never, I always say. And plus, this is for me, and I can make up the rules! 2017 was a great year for me, personally. (The world, not so much...) It was the first full calendar year I spent with my now-fiance (!!!), we moved in together, I lifted some heavy things, I played some roller derby, I read and received a lot of good books. I think this year was far more eclectic of a year in terms of books, simply because of the number of categories I was given. I appreciated the specificity of some of the categories, as well as the broad, simple nature of others. This year in reading featured a lot of female- and woman- driven books, as per usual, but I also read a number of books centering stories of people of color, something I look to continue to do in the years to come. I read some more gay books, increased my bookshelf in that category, and it has been just all around pretty great. So, here we go, to recap twenty-four whole books that I read for this challenge in the year two thousand and seventeen!

Derby Life by Margot "Em Dash" Atwell
January - book about sports
The first thing I wanted to try to do this year was to read books that I already owned, if they fit the category. I donated to the Kickstarter for this book years ago, but it has sat on my derby reference shelf since then. I really enjoyed getting a new and different perspective on the sport I hold so dear, especially now that I am competing at such a wildly different level than when I started, three short years ago.

The Case for Books by Robert Darnton 
January - nonfiction book about technology
Books are great! I love books! E-readers give me access to so many books for so much cheaper! But I miss books! This is the age-old debate (well, Technology Age-old, haha) for book lovers, and it was one that I found very interesting. Darnton focused on Google and book digitization, but the essays were written seven years ago, and I would love to see what kind of research has been done since then.

Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg
February - book about books
Did I mention that I love books? This category was super hard, so I fell back on a book I'd been gifted and a concept that I was just so tickled by. What if classic characters could text? A fantastic thought experiment that Mallory Ortberg executed perfectly. I found myself snorting with laughter on the bus many a time during my read.



When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

February - book about immigration or by an immigrant
When I Was Puerto Rican is one of those books that I've seen on Best-Of lists since I was in high school but it never fit in with my reading schedule. This year it feels particularly poignant in retrospect, what with the devastation in Puerto Rico that still has not been addressed adequately by our government. The scenes in which the author discusses governmental aid during the election season was particularly difficult for me to read in today's context.

Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
March - collection of short stories written by a woman
Oh look, another chance to read some Virginia Woolf. I am slowly making my way through her entire oeuvre, and this collection of short stories reminded me why I fell in love with her to begin with. It is her early stuff, pre-Mrs. Dalloway, and you can see her playing with her soon-to-be characteristic style in various corners of the book. There's also a fantastic patriarchy-smashing satirical entry called "A Society" that everyone must read, stat.


The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

March - book that has been banned frequently
Well of Loneliness is often hailed as the beginning of lesbian fiction. It is a novel that is often referred to also as a thinly-veiled autobiography of Hall herself, and it is an interesting slice of naming and identity politics in that era. I think that I would more readily classify it as a genderqueer classic, rather than a lesbian one, and it was interesting to see arguably the beginning of the kill your darlings trope. And by interesting, I mean infuriating.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King
April - fantasy novel
It seems that 2017 was also a year to get around to reading things I've meant to for years but haven't. I was finally prompted to read The Gunslinger because the movie adaptation with Idris Elba was coming out, and a friend of mine swears by the series. I was very intrigued, and I read the second book, but there were places where I just really shook my head at Stephen King.

The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
April - travel memoir
Where to be happy is an interesting concept for a travel memoir, and the methodical way in which Eric Weiner goes about researching and/or proving his hypotheses is incredibly appealing to a logical creature such as myself. It basically just solidified my desire to visit Iceland.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
May - book you've read before
I think this is the fourth time I've read Handmaid's Tale? The last was during the Romney bid for presidency, but this time was quantifiably scarier. The Hulu series did an incredible job of expanding Atwood's universe and adjusting things for 2017--although not many things, because it is unfortunately just as relevant now. (I will say that the fact that Elizabeth Moss is a Scientologist is highly problematic for me in terms of the brand of this show. But that's for another time.)

Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian
May - all ages comic
It is hard to find a stand-alone comic these days, and I did not succeed here either. Turns out this is Volume I! But in any case, I enjoyed this pen-and-ink comic with its intricate page layouts and fantastical characters. I am a sucker for pirate stories, especially lady pirate stories, so this was right up my alley.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
June - book set >5000 mi from your location
Again, a book that has been on my shelf for like 5 years. It was recommended to me in college by a crush, who was as in love with words as I am, and this book did not disappoint. It was thrilling to read the way Hulme engages with not only the English of the book, but the Maori phrases that are peppered into the narratives.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
June - YA by an LGBTQ+ author
This made my little gay heart swell. I appreciated the lack of a "eureka!" moment, as that is not how I came to my sexuality either, and to see it dealt with so naturally on the page was empowering. I got my copy of this book for free at Ferndale Pride this past summer, exemplifying a good queer community.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
July - published between 1900 and 1950
Another read prompted by the upcoming release of a film! Kenneth Branagh is Hercule Poirot in the newest film version of Agatha Christie's classic, and while I haven't seen it yet, I am looking forward to watching him act around a glorious mustache. I like reading mystery novels and only allowing half of my brain to try to figure out the whodunit, allowing the other half to just sort of revel in the reveal, so to speak.

Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
July - debut novel
The original angsty vampire novel! Granted, Anne Rice is a much better writer than Stephanie Meyer, but the angst is strong with this one. I saw the movie so long ago, and I think I was most struck by tiny Kirsten Dunst, so that was the most gripping part of the novel for me. Also demon children are just terrifying altogether, so there's that.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
August - book where all points of view are people of color
I stretched the category a little for this one, since Mo had bought it to read and I wanted to take advantage of that,  but I'm very glad I did. I think reading it in conjunction with seeing the film adaptation really was what made it fit this category.

Hell Hath No Fury by Rosalind Miles and Robin Cross
August - book about war
Again, could've been so good, but I wanted it to be at least 200 pages longer so they could go into more detail about some of the people discussed. I understand that that's not what this particular book was about, it was trying to be more of a reference guide, but on the bright side, now I have a whole list of women I want to go and research.

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
September - book where a character of color goes on a spiritual journey
Janet Mock is a personal hero of mine. I really enjoyed reading about her inner thoughts as she was becoming who she really is, and the deftness with which she dealt with her situation was poetic and inspiring. I am looking forward to reading more of her work as I continue on my journey to be a woke human being.

Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat! #1: Hooked on a Feline by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams
September - superhero comic with a female lead
I loved Kate Leth's reimagining of Hellcat! Let's be real, I love pretty much everything about Kate Leth. So it was fun to see her venture into the superhero world and leave her signature fun and irreverent stamp on it. Plus she came up with the One Stop Crop Top Shop that has haunted my dreams ever since!

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
October - classic by an author of color
I grew up having "Phenomenal Woman" read to me by my mother. I've been raised on Maya Angelou. I've read parts of this book, I think, but never had the opportunity to sit down and read it in its entirety. It still feels so very relevant, especially in 2017, and that both made my heart swell and hurt.

A Knight To Remember by Bridget Essex
October - LGBTQ+ romance novel
This was a ridiculous romance novel but we finished it. It could've been so good but I was constantly taken out of it by the author's outlandish descriptions and obsession with certain key phrases. It sort of made me want to write a romance novel, you know, to do it better. But I love reading LGBTQ+ stories, so that made my little queer heart warm.


The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel
November - book set in Central/South America, written by a Central/South American author
DNF. Did. Not. Finish. The first 20 pages made me uncomfortable and they were trying too hard and I just couldn't even with it. I have brought the first 20 pages back out at parties to read how ridiculous it is, though.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
November - book set <100 mi from your location
I loved this book. I've been meaning to read it for a long while now, and I'm grateful when challenges allow me to check one of those books off my list. What can I say about Middlesex that hasn't already been said? It is an amazing work of literature, both in terms of style and form. The decisions Eugenides made with time and structure add weight to the story and to the narrator, and I couldn't put it down.

Look There by Agi Mishol, translated by Lisa Katz
December - collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love
I've had a lot of feelings about Israel lately, and reading this collection was no exception. I was reminded of the beauty of Israel and also its hardship, and how it has shaped the people in my life. I missed my brother when I read these poems, and I texted him to make sure he know that I was thinking about him.

Fruit Mansion by Sam Herschel Wein
December - book published by a micropress
My cool friend Sam wrote a chapbook and I had the honor of buying it and reading it and putting it on my shelf. His raw honesty and power came through in every line of every poem, and I am thrilled to know him.

And there you have it! That is my 2017 in books, for the most part. I am proud to have only hit one dud in this challenge, as I was really stretching myself. I wish I had more time to read, but I think I'm doing pretty well as is! I hope you enjoyed this, imaginary reader, and I maybe gave you some TBRs of your own!

~ My 2016 recap ~ 

~ My 2015 recap ~ 

~ My 2014 recap ~ 

~ My 2013 recap ~

Recap 2016: Year Number Four

Well. Bye 2016. This year was tumultuous in affairs of the heart, rather than the workplace--unlike last year, I'm still at the same job as I was when I started 2016. My 5-year relationship with a man ended and I quickly fell for someone new, a girl who seemed to open up a new part of me that I hadn't really been sure was there. Things ended in flames, I threw myself into roller derby, went to playoffs with my team, and am now happily in a new relationship with a woman whom I'm pretty sure hung the moon. I am extraordinarily, sublimely happy. I have still been reading diligently and thinking a lot, but I have a lot of work to do, and I finally feel like I am in a place where I can confidently step forward and do it. Here's some recap thoughts about my fourth year of eclectic reading, y'all.

The Poet by Michael Connelly
January - serial killer thriller
I started 2016 by going back to a book I had started the year before, which, granted, is not the freshest way to start a new year, but I am relatively stubborn when it comes to finishing books. The Poet was written 10 years prior and I got caught up in the different ways mystery fiction (and the world itself) have changed in a decade. This book intrigued me because it boasted threads of Edgar Allen Poe flair, but it made me incredibly uncomfortable as well, due to the serial killer and the pedophilia. It was the kind of twisty, genre-bending fiction I aspire to someday, and its humility reminded me that such aspirations are possible

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
February - novel set on an island
Humans are messed upppp. The Island of Doctor Moreau is about a island where a man essentially plays God, cutting and prodding and putting together animals according to his whim. It is a slim classic that I have been telling myself to just devour in a weekend for years, but it has proved difficult to fit in, and this read was no exception. It took me a while, possibly because the outside world seemed more interesting than that of science fiction, but I made it through, and watching the end of this season of Orphan Black was all the richer for it. It is interesting to note, in retrospect, how many of my books were about creativity and possibility and how the human condition can send those things horribly horribly astray, and Doctor Moreau was the beginning of that trend. The doctor, after all, wanted to make something new and different and inspirational, but he was consumed by his madness and it became something dark. 

Somewhere In Time by Richard Matheson
March - paranormal romance
This is a hella angsty book. Richard Collier is in love with an idea of a woman, and is so resolute in his love that he pretty much wills himself back in time to be with her. It is a story of desire, of longing, and above all, of timing. I'd had terrible luck with timing thus far in 2016, certain events not playing out entirely correctly because of impatience or a mismatch in timing. But as hard as those events were, and as angsty a slog as this book was to read, I would not change a single thing about it. It is done and over with, and I have learned, but I am glad that it happened, something I think (I hope) Richard Collier felt toward the conclusion of his lovelorn story. 
Mad, Bad & Sad by Lisa Appignanesi
April - Psychology (non-fiction)
It is possibly (though unintentionally) apropos that I chose to follow the angst and sadness of March and Somewhere in Time with Mad, Bad & Sad. This book offered up a smattering of women in history and how they were diagnosed with various mental ailments, from hysteria to schizophrenia to depression, the ways that their eccentricity and differentness have been received by the world. I buried myself in the history this month, the stories of these women and their woes. I learned new things about women I love, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf, and I wondered a lot about their sadness and artistry and what it was that made them so alluring. 
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
May - disaster fiction
One of my biggest takeaways from Station Eleven is the idea that art and language and creativity can survive in the face of utter oblivion. A contagion breaks out in the world of Station Eleven, and the book follows various important players and survivors as they prepare for and reminisce about the end of civilization as they know it. Kirsten was a child when disaster struck and she has largely grown up in the post-apocalyptic world, joining a traveling company that recites Shakespeare across the country, reminding everyone of the lasting power of art and words. Important to remember in these last weeks of the Obama administration.
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
June - books about books 
I love books about books. I was very torn about this category. I started at least four options, until I nearly ran out of month to read and had to settle. I wish this had gone more into the mysterious book it sets up, instead of leaving it as a token, a foil to be traded amongst the characters. I still find myself gravitating toward stories about coming into one's own, finding one's own space and passion, and The Secret of Lost Things was certainly that. 
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
July - steampunk sci-fi
Free will, fighting back, and the decisions you make are all paramount to The Mechanical, the first in a new steampunk sci-fi series. It felt good to lose myself in a new world, especially one so carefully and eloquently crafted. Jax's journey from duty-bound mechanical servant to free-willed automaton was an engrossing narrative that I am looking forward to following as the next books in the series come out.  
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
August - Young Adult historical fiction
I really do enjoy when I get to incorporate young adult fiction into my year. Easy reads are just as important as high-flown and intellectual ones, and My Lady Jane was excellent. It was the mostly romanticized and fictionalized version of Lady Jane Grey's nine-day reign as Queen of England, another showcasing of coming into one's own, however supernaturally (Lady Jane realizes she is of a special sect of individuals who can transform into an animal at will). The revisionist history aspect of it made my heart happy, as well, because Lady Jane being executed after nine days of power has always broken my heart. 
The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg
September - Investigative journalism
I used to want to be something akin to an investigative journalist, but my primary shyness has made that a slightly difficult dream to achieve. The Underground Girls of Kabul tells of girls and women in Afghanistan who dress and live as boys for social benefits, and follows a number of cases, from those who give up their male guise at puberty to those who fight tooth and nail to remain androgynous into adulthood. I was struck by the visceral need to be who you are that the latter example of these people fit into, and it was striking to see into their world, even if I was unsure that I had the right to ask. 
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
October - shortlist for the Man Booker Prize
Once again, we find humans playing God and we end with the undeniable tenet that humans are messed up. Oryx and Crake is slightly more apocalyptic than Island of Doctor Moreau, however, and it involves a premeditated end to the world as a result of the wielding of these powers. Margaret Atwood has a strange psyche, to say the least, but I am rarely disappointed when I take a trip with her. She has a way of laying out humanity that manages to transcend contemporariness to remain relevant for the reader whenever the text is consumed. 
Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
November - immigrant experience fiction
In November, this country broke. Our electoral system allowed a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic bigot to ascend to the highest office, and it is galvanizing. I picked up Americanah among other texts to both educate myself and remind myself that I am not alone. Do the work. Observe. Speak out. This is going to be a huge responsibility in the next four years.
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
December - debut author in 2016
I ended 2016 with a debut author's first work, another sort of coming-of-age tale set against a restaurant life backdrop. The poetry of description was as intoxicating as Tess's first year in the city. At the restaurant, they make a big deal about wine, especially its terroir, which is defined as the conglomeration of environmental and contextual situations that make up the character of a wine, and Danler extended this metaphor to suggest that people also have their own sort of terroir, based upon their experiences and history. Sweetbitter was arresting in that regard, asking me what sort of terroir do I have at this point in my life? Is it close to where I'd like it to be? How much more work do I have to get started on?
After all these books, all these pages, all these words, I am surely not the same person I was when I began 2016. My experiences this past year have been heavy and heady and eye-opening, and I feel full. Full of promise, of opportunity, of fight. I say again, goodbye 2016, and I hope that 2017 is not the end of the world as we know it. 

{Link to my 2015 recap ~ Link to my 2014 recap  ~  Link to my 2013 recap }

Recap 2015: A Third Year of Eclectic Reading

Herein begins the ultra-tardy recap of my third year of eclectic reading, everybody! Thanks for stickin around! I've done this three times already, and it's thrilling to see that even though I'm late at times, I have finished it off every time. I have kept myself in school, so to speak, and this time I don't get docked points for papers turned in after the deadline! 2015 was a crazy year for me. I lost my job, spent a few months unemployed, found two jobs in quick succession, and spent the second half of the year settling into the one I chose, learning and growing and expanding my brain--not just because I was working for a neuroscience startup! I noticed that I read a lot of books that featured strong, real ladies this year (not much of a surprise, but always worth mentioning), as well as a number of books dealing with personal growth and change and what you wanted to be when you grew up (so to speak). Again, I warn of spoilers, because one cannot have adequate recaps or discussions without spoilers, so tread carefully, my friends!

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
January - diversity
The first book I chose for 2015 was one featuring diversity, The Secret Life of Bees, about a little white girl who runs away with her nanny and finds a home with three black sisters who have a secret connection to her late mother. I've always thought of diversity as an interesting concept in reading, being that it is so based in the reader's perception, so diversity has to be explicit or else readers will most likely fill in their own backgrounds for un-filled-in characters. This book was the first in the trend of strong, real ladies, not only myriad different female roles, but the ways in which they can shift and change as you age.

Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lundqvist
February - set in a country starting with S, Sweden
Finally, I found a good creepy vampire story, one that I was actually loath to turn the light off on when I was done reading for the night! Let The Right One In played with the lore in ways that I hadn't seen before, and it was a genuinely creep-tastic read, which was thoroughly thrilling. This was a stark contrast to Bees, which showed you the hope and light within everyone, where Let The Right One In showcased the grimness and dankness inherent in much of human nature. An interesting juxtaposition, to say the least, but one that I very much enjoyed. Because after all, what is the light without its contrasting darkness?

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
March - YA Adventure
Graceling was a very easy read, complete with fabulous world-building and ridiculous naming mechanics, but it was overall a good strong girl exposure book. This book combined the threads I mentioned in my intro of strong ladies and what do you want to be when you grow up, being an incredibly heavy-handed coming-of-age story for Katsa, who is Graced (ostensibly) with killing, turned into a monster by a man who once claimed to be her family. She learns through her relationship with Po that her Grace may not actually be killing after all, that she's been looking at herself skewed for so long that that was just how it seemed. The possibility for good and change within her took some time and care to find, but she did, and she was able to save a little girl's life because of it.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester 
April - microhistory
Nerd heaven! This is a microhistory of the Oxford English Dictionary, lovingly and colloquially referred to as the OED, and it describes the efforts of the men who created it many decades ago. As a word nerd, I harbor an undying love for the OED, and though it is technically nonfiction, I loved this book as a "profile" of it. It gives the reader a chance to see the OED almost as a character in and of itself, learning as you progress its history, its birth, its secrets.

Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
May - PI fiction
VMars! This is the second of the novelizations of Veronica Mars's life adventures upon her return to Neptune after the events of the Veronica Mars movie. The strongest of the strong ladies, one of my favorite role models, and although I read this one as a book and not an audiobook narrated by VMars herself (Kristen Bell) like the first, I could still feel her seeping through every word. Mr. Kiss and Tell dealt with heavy issues like the rape and murder of a call girl, and the intricacies of it made it one of my longest and most involved reviews of the year, one that I forced myself to cut short before I rewrote the whole book. Veronica Mars has always helped me to think about and champion the hard things, bringing the grit of life out into the open.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
June - contemporary romance
The Rosie Project was a different kind of story/character than I'm used to. I wasn't sure at first, but the pages kept turning! Simsion did a great job of making a character that I wasn't sure would be palatable hold my attention simply because the entire framework of his highly logical mind was laid out for me to follow like a roadmap, and I was fascinated. The biggest question I had reading this book, especially the end of it, was the idea of changing oneself and the difference between making a change for yourself or for someone else, and whether the latter was ever okay if it led to something that made you happier in yourself. Again, 2015 was a year of transition for me, and thoughts of personal growth/working on myself were never far away, and this book helped me see it from maybe a different point of view than I ever would've considered before, namely that of a borderline autistic middle class white Australian man.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
July - epistolary fiction (sort of)
This was sort of my cheat book for the year, only sort of epistolary; it was more like I wanted the book I was reading to work because it was the end of the month and I didn't have time to read another whole book, so I made it work. But it brought up some interesting questions because it didn't quite fit. Gone Girl is about a husband whose wife disappears with barely a trace on the morning of their wedding anniversary, and the first part of the book switches between his present and her diary recounting when they met. Now, SPOILERS--it is later found out that this diary, and really the whole disappearance, was a fabrication on the part of Amy, the wife. This brought up the incredibly interesting idea of the journal as reality but also as a constructed version of events. What is reality, really?

Mind Gym by Gary Mack with David Casstevens
August - sports
I read this for roller derby. Around this time, I was considering trying out for full B-team status, and I was having a lot of feelings about that. Leaving the team I'd started with after barely a whole season, possibly missing out on some opportunities with that team later in the season, but open to the possibilities that being a full member of the B-team would allow me, all these thoughts were spinning me around so much that I was changing my mind hourly about tryouts. I was recommended this book as a perspective on how to keep my head on straight through all of it, how to allow myself to improve and learn without berating myself for failures or perceived shortcomings, and while much of it was anecdotal, there were many portions that I still refer back to in my derby career. This book focused a lot on what is it that you want, and how are you going to help yourself go out and get it.

Eve by Elissa Elliott
September - retelling of a fairytale or myth
Eve: A Novel of the First Woman is just that, a book about the biblical Eve, told from her perspective as well as that of her (imaginary?) children. I love "historical fiction" like this--I use quotes because of the contentious nature of Eve as a historical character. It is a re-telling of the archetypical female character, the first female character, and I loved it because it allowed her to be flawed, to be fucked up and imperfect without taking all the blame for everything women have done ever, which she is so often forced to do.

The Martian by Andy Weir
October - SciFi in space
Funny! This book was very funny. Which was great, because I find space to be slightly terrifying, especially the concept of being trapped in space with no recourse or exit. Weir was knowledgeable enough and prepared enough that his tale was plausible, and only sort of terrifying, and the fact that so much shit went wrong over and over again and Mark Watney, the astronaut, still survived still made sense because space is hard.

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
November - fiction for foodies
Fiction for foodies was such an overwhelming category, and there were actually a number of attractive books that I had already read, so I chose one that was on my to-read shelf. Framboise Simon is the narrator, and both her young self and her old self share the narration. It was another multi-faceted portrait of ladyhood, one that toyed with young and old, mother and daughter, and everything that goes along with.

Magic Kingdom for Sale--SOLD! by Terry Brooks 
December - published before 1991
Magic Kingdom was Terry Brooks's first book that wasn't set in the Shannara universe. It was easy/low fantasy read, about a man who bought a magic kingdom out of a catalog and realized he had to save it from ruin once he got there. It was a clever stab at a mid-life crisis, an overwrought lawyer being asked by the universe, What do you want out of life, how are you gonna find it/go get it? December always seems to be a time of transition, and it seemed fitting that I read this book when my job got pretty stressful and I started thinking about looking for another one. Sure, I probably won't be able to buy a magic kingdom to go and save (God knows I don't have a million bucks cash lying around to pay for it), but it begs the question, what exactly is it that I want moving forward? I'm about to hit my mid-twenties, the millenial quarter-life crisis looming, and I still haven't found my dream job. And I might not, but I should get myself out of the comfort rut and keep looking. Maybe there is a magic kingdom out there somewhere for me.

Time for final thoughts. I began my writing year with a promise to dedicating myself more to my writing, being on time with my posts, and here I am two months late with my recap. But I can't fault myself too much, because I am still writing, but I am also living, moreso than I think I ever have before, and once this headiness passes, I may be able to get my schedule under control once again. But for now, I'm going to keep reading, keep living, and hope I can get my things published in a sort of timely fashion. Stay tuned!

{Link to my 2014 recap  ~  Link to my 2013 recap }

AUG - The Mind Gym

August review for Eclectic Reader's Challenge 2015: The Mind Gym by Gary Mack with David Casstevens, 2001. [Sports category]

Mind Gym and my derby quad skates

The Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence was recommended to a friend of mine who expressed fears that she was experiencing a plateau in her derby career. This skater had shown a meteoric rise from newly-passed skills to A-team starting jammer, but she has recently been feeling like she isn't going any farther. I don't know if I would describe what I'm feeling as a plateau in the way that she does, but I decided picking up this book would be worthwhile for my athletic career, especially with B-team tryouts coming up. I had straddled the line between C and B teams since last November, skating as an alternate for the B team, and now I was considering trying out for a full spot on the roster, and I was nervous. I was nervous to embrace my progress, nervous to leave my comfort zone and the team that I felt had made me a lot of what I was. I angsted about tryouts and talked to a lot of my friends who had been skating at a higher level than I for longer, and they all told me pretty much the same thing: that I had to examine what I wanted for myself, what my personal goals were, and understand the headspace I was in before I made my decision. This was not news to me.

Ever since I became an athlete in high school, I have struggled with the mental game and its serious applicability to the course or the track or whatever situation I found myself in. I ran cross country and threw shotput and discus in high school, rode horses when I was younger, and most recently joined roller derby, most of which are particularly individual-focused. Derby was the first thing I'd done--pretty much ever--where I had a team and a tryout and a roster, and it didn't scare me or discourage me as much as I thought it might. I have never been particularly thin or fast and I didn't realize how much I'd built those attributes up as indicators of worth--attributes which I did not possess and therefore subconsciously found myself less-than, a mindset I have worked extremely hard to eradicate in recent years. While I have not been particularly thin or fast, I have always been strong, and derby has given me a space to aggrandize and celebrate that strength and to slightly make up for some of the self-denigration I've experienced (at my own hands) in the past. Derby has allowed me a space to celebrate my body and my strength, as well as realize that the attributes I do not possess do not make me any lesser of an athlete. They just make me a different kind of an athlete, and I would not trade the body I have now for anything. I have become more healthy, both physically and mentally, since the first time I laced up quads over a year and a half ago, and I could not be happier with the community and worldview it has brought me.

Me skating against the Lansing Mitten Mavens this past month
Photo courtesy of David Lewis

As I mentioned, a lot of the content of this book was information I had heard before, in some form or another, particularly the points about positive thinking and visualization. As a team, we have recently started to incorporate visualization practices into our bout-day warm-up ritual, and I admit that allowing myself that time to become centered has helped immensely. In terms of the actual text itself, its anectodal sentence structure left me a little less-than engaged, as Mack would move from one athlete's story to another within a few lines, and I wouldn't really connect with many of them because they were blown through so fast. However, Mack's book has been very beneficial to me as a reminder to practice these things that I have known as well as the new things I have learned, to implement them in my own mind gym where I hold all the power over my own progress. One small thing that I will take away from this text is the idea of kaizen, a term utilized in Japanese culture meaning constant daily learning and improvement, as recounted by Mack (p47). I thoroughly believe that learning is an everyday process, one that each conscious choice should point towards, no matter what the subject of those choices are. I try to take the time after each day's practice to reflect on things I did well and things I would like to continue to work on, in order to be the best skater I can be. So while this book wasn't revolutionary to me, the concept of the mind gym and of kaizen are invaluable tools that Mack has brought to the forefront of my training mind, and I hope to implement them through the rest of this season.