My Quest to Read 100 Books in a Year: January, Month One
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why I am reading 100 books this year?
Really I am doing this because I want to and because I accomplished this goal once before in 2021. I fell about 25% short in 2022, so it’s game on! I’m taking a different approach to the types of books I read to be more intentional this year compared to last. Read my full story of this year’s challenge in my post here.
where I stand one month in to reading 100 books
I’ve read 8 books, which means I’m on track. This does not give me great comfort - I like to start the year off further ahead!
Until categorizing them below, I didn’t realize that I’d read half fiction and half non-fiction.
books read in january on the journey to 100
Fiction: Literary
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich - This is my second read of Erdrich’s - I previously read The Night Watchman, 2021 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Sentence begins in the fall of 2019 when a patron of a Minneapolis bookstore dies and begins to haunt Tookie, who works at the bookstore. Tookie is also haunted by her own past crimes for which she is trying to atone. Over the course of the next year, Tookie confronts an ever-aggressive ghost while finding herself in the midst of what 2020 brought - Covid, George Floyd and the BLM protests. The author is Native American as is the main character, and significant matters of cultural importance are a subtext of the novel. As a bonus, the book includes a number of lists of favorite books discussed throughout the novel. I know what else I’m adding to my to read pile!
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet - Read the full review we wrote here. After walking cross country from NYC to Phoenix, Gil establishes a new life in a house that abuts his neighbors’ glass house. In befriending his neighbors he begins to establish a routing and rhythm to his life in his chosen city. The trials of modern life - climate change and disappearing animals - and what our lives mean when confronted with these existential crises are all explored against the sad childhood inheritance that haunts Gil.
Fiction: Contemporary
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan - This is my second read by Sullivan, the first being Saints for All Occasions. I picked up Maine as a pre-trip read for my next trip to the state this coming summer. Maine spans the lives of three generations of an Irish family that vacations on their own private beach on the Maine coast, a lucky gambling win in the first generation. The novel is narrated by the matriarch, her daughter, her daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter, all contending with their own idiosyncrasies, worries, and fears. The characters are well written, and Sullivan successfully has some of each character’s point of view overlap so the reader can see the abyss between intentions and perception.
The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White - If you have ever been to Newport, Rhode Island, and imagined what it would be like to live in one of the huge mansions along the crashing shore, this one’s for you! This is a multi-generational family tale that is set against the backdrop of a family mystery, a historic house reality TV show, and the impact of changing social mores. While I figured out most of the ending before I got to it, the novel was still clever, interesting, and engaging.
Non-fiction: History
Life on the Upper Susquehanna 1783-1860 by James Arthur Frost - The Upper Susquehanna is the area of southeastern New York and the northern tip of Pennsylvania. Frost’s work is a historically significant one that covers what life was like in an 80 year span from the 18th to 19th century. The book depicts life and livelihood, economic factors, and social norms shortly after the Revolutionary War up to the dawn of the Civil War. I happened to inherit this book from my family, and my edition dates back to the mid 1900s. My own predecessors lived in Pennsylvania during the time period so I have to imagine that the reason my grandfather first purchased this was his interest in the general region. This was a great account into life in one section of early America, though I recognize it is a niche read that will not appeal to all!
Non-Fiction: Social Commentary
The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman - I have read five of Klosterman’s prior works and always enjoy his sardonic and clear-eyed view of the world. The Nineties explores that decade as it was at the time - a time where the internet was an idea associated more with academia than life-altering, where grunge was in, when you didn’t want to appear to try too hard. Ross Perot and Ralph Nader re-emerge, and we are reminded by surprising factors like the small number of years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers. Both refreshing and eye-opening, The Nineties can’t help but make me wonder how we’ll remember the more recent decades.
Non-fiction: The Natural World
Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland’s Elves Can Save the Earth by Nancy Marie Brown - This is the second work of non-fiction of Brown’s that I’ve read, the first being The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women. Brown’s work is a surprising, compelling, and heartening tale of the planet as a whole but as focused in the fire and ice environment of Iceland. Brown has traveled to Iceland countless times over the decades - long before it was a place that other people desired to see - and has formed friendships with the Icelandic, and written and researched its history and saga. Through the popularized jokes and stories about the Icelandic people believing in elves, Brown challenges how we define what is in and of the world and how we think about our part in it. I highly recommend this read to anyone who cares about the natural environment and is interested in Iceland.
Non-fiction: Business
Managing the Professional Service Firm by David Maister - I read this one as part of a book club at work and other than saying I highly recommend it for people working in the professional service industry, there is probably not much more to say here.
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