2022 Reading

Troubled Water - Seth M. Siegel. I bought this from the local Little Village Toy & Book Shop. The back room is a discount area with 50% off books and I thought I wanted to learn more about climate change and concerns to our water supply. I didn't, really. Now I know all about the microplastics in every sip of water I drink. It was incredibly informative and depressing and I wish the EPA had the teeth to regulate industry and keep people safe.

Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich. A LFL book that tells the true story of MIT students and their teacher who used math to win from Las Vegas and other casinos. I can't imagine winning - and losing - millions. The movie "21" is based on this book and if I find it on tv or streaming, I'd watch it.

Slow Burn - Julie Garwood. A LFL book I read because it was based in Charleston/Savannah. Definitely chick-lit.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland - Patrick Radden Keefe. I ask for anything off the Washington Post or NYT bestseller/year end book lists every year for Christmas. This is a gripping story about the Irish troubles and how people died and disappeared. I don't think I grasped how much this affected people in Belfast for three decades.

Ordinary Justice: How America Holds Court - Amy Bach. This took me a couple attempts to get through because it hit so close to home about some of the failures of the criminal justice system. If you like Season 3 of Serial, this book is for you. This should be required reading for public defenders or prosecutors, along with Just Mercy.

The Dry Grass of August - Anna Jean Mayhew. A LFL book about 1950s living in the south. It gave me insight into a world very different than my own childhood. Some DV.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle - Amelia Nagoski. This book was a refuge in May when I was contemplating quitting my job and taking some time to think about what I wanted to do with my life. Fortunately, I was able to take a month off and start a new, fulfilling position.

The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown. A fun, quick LFL read about the 1936 Olympic men's rowing team. It's being adapted into a movie and I found that my mom and several other people read it this fall as well, so it was nice to talk about it with others.

Where the Deer and Antelope Play - Nick Offerman. I won a $25 gift card to the Little Village Toy & Book Shop for winning Littleton's cupcake eating contest! I treated myself to the first book that caught my eye, on the new releases table - a book from Park & Rec and Making It's Nick Offerman about getting outdoors, being less materialistic, and eating ethically raised meat. I don't agree with ALL of it (for example, the quantity of meat being consumed) and Nick could at times get pedantic, but overall I loved that it supported my newly found impulse to get outside more and just BE in nature.

Wish You Were Here - Jodi Picoult. I borrowed this from my mom, and I think it's the first Jodi Picoult book I've thoroughly enjoyed. I was hooked all the way through the twist. I wasn't annoyed like I was with Small Great Things or A Spark of Light.

The Rent Collector - Camron Wright. My mom really enjoyed this book, and when I borrowed it last year, I had trouble getting started because of the negative imagery of the slums of Mumbai and the human suffering. Once I got moving, it was an immersive story.

A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar. I finally got through this book! It took a year or two. It was interesting but dense, and, obviously, had a lot of depressing mental illness.

2021 Reading

Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Brosh. I told multiple people that my favorite cartoonist was publishing a sequel to her amazing Hyperbole and a Half book, and I received TWO COPIES as gifts! It lived up to my very high expectations.

One Day - Gene Weingarten. This is by one of my favorite authors, a feature writer for the Washington Post. He picked a date by random - December 28, 1986, and then researched multiple things that happened that day, and wove them into one incredibly well written book. I met Gene in 2016 in my Stadium Armory neighborhood, not too far from his Capitol Hill home. I recognized him from the car - I had driven my dog the 1 mile to the dog park since I had recently torn my MCL and meniscus. I tweeted him later that day with a photo of my collection of his books, and he responded, which was pretty cool.

We Fed an Island - Jose Andres. I donated some of my COVID stimulus money to World Central Kitchen, and when I saw there was a $12 book, I got it to learn more about what WCK actually does. It's a fast read about Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. Andres is definitely political and name checks people in the U.S. government who weren't moving quickly enough to get aid to the island.

The Thing About Jellyfish - Ali Benjamin This is a Little Free Library YA read. It was sad, but an enjoyable read, with a creative plot.

Look Alive Out There - Sloane Crosley. Another Little Free Library read. It's a collection of short humor stories. I enjoyed some, but not all of it.

Troubled Water - Seth Siegel. I picked this up in the discount section of the local book store, Little Village Toy & Book Shop. I learned A TON, but it was also pretty depressing to learn that the EPA basically hasn't taken any steps to protect people in the last 30 years. They get information about new chemicals, and conduct studies...and don't do anything.

The Testaments - Margaret Atwater. I was excited to receive this sequel to Handmaid's Tale for Christmas and read it in a day or two. It wasn't as good as the original, which is always a challenge, but I enjoyed the story.

Miller's Valley - Anna Quindlen. One of my favorite LFL finds in quite a while. The author tells the story of her family and their hometown, and how it is shaped by the government's decision to flood it. I found myself looking up the (limited) history of how nearby Moore Reservoir was formed in my town. It's part of the Connecticut River, drawing the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, and there is a hydroelectric dam immediately south. I know about 9 towns were flooded to create the reservoir, and I've heard you can find some of the old stone boundary walls if you look carefully while kayaking close to shore.

2020 Reading

Shortly before the United States locked down in mid-March 2020, I went in person to my local Charleston library branch to activate my card. My goal was to request Outlander Books #5-8 which were housed at larger branches. Fortunately, I poked around and grabbed a few books while I was there.

The Education of an Idealist - Samantha Powell. This memoir by the UN Ambassador under President Obama was on the New Release wall at the library. It follows her career from recent college graduate learning to be a war correspondent to an advocate for peace and humanitarian aid on the largest stage. 542p was a bit lengthy for the topic, but still a worthwhile read.

Difficult Women - Roxanne Gay
An Untamed State - Roxanne Gay. I was looking under "G" in case any Diana Gabaldon books were in stock. I noticed the NYT Bestseller on An Untamed State, Gay's debut novel, and picked it and the collection of short stories next to it. Once I got home, I saw that An Untamed State was about kidnapping and sexual assault, and decided I'd start with the short stories first. They were well written, but the stories, often featuring protagonist twins or siblings with close bonds, also contained DV and SA. I'm still failing at finding light reading, but I enjoyed both these books.

I was Anastasia - Ariel Lawhon. A Christmas book that falls in the historical fiction genre that I often enjoy. I read the first half slowly, ten or twenty pages at a time, until a month into lockdown, and then I stayed up til 2am finishing this book. It did a nice job pulling me in, and my reaction at the final twist, if I didn't find it sacrilegious, would have been to throw it across the room.

The Paris Seamstress - Natashia Lester. Historical fiction about WWII, this drew me in and kept me entertained.

The Yellow House - Sarah M. Broom. I picked this up because I've always wanted a yellow house. This told the story of a family that lost their home in Hurricane Katrina, and the many personalities that had lived there. This was a great book, sad and heartfelt and hopeful all at the same time.

I am Malala -Malala Yousafzai. Borrowed from my mom, I think, and a great account of her childhood and how her father prioritized education. Her story is uplifting and I know she'll continue to shape the world and the future of girls everywhere.

After a few months in quarantine, my mom mailed me several paperbacks, mostly books I'd been buying off Amazon and shipping to her for book club. There's something so nice about a shared book and being able to discuss it afterward.

Born a Crime - Trevor Noah. The comedian and late show host writes about his childhood growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He's also a born storyteller.

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins. I started this book with skepticism after reading some critiques of the author writing about the immigrant experience, which is not her experience. I found it overall an interesting story, but that didn't change my concerns. My mom didn't appreciate my criticism of a book she thoroughly enjoyed.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity - Katherine Boo. The author paints an intricate picture of the Annawadian sector. It's nonfiction but is still a page-turner that draws you in as you hope against the odds that the residents will find safety, food, and security, only to have your hopes dashed alongside them.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris. I could enjoy this as a historical fiction book, but when I got to the end and read it was based on a true story, I had trouble believing it. For a subgenre I normally enjoy, not my favorite.

A Piece of the World - Christine Baker Kline. The author takes a famous Maine painting, Christina's View by Andrew Wyeth, and imagines the subject of the painting and her life with a progressive disease that limits her mobility and requires ingenuity to accomplish daily tasks. I don't think I've ever read a fictional book that explains a painting, so this was a neat take.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery. A LFL library book that jumps right in with a suicidal 12 year old but has some interesting characters once you push through that.

Elizabeth Costello - J.M. Coetze. This book is critiqued as being a collection of essays or lectures, rather than telling a story, and I think that's fair. I found it confusing and not my favorite.

2019 Reading

I started several books at the beginning of winter, but it turns out they were all about very depressing topics and I struggled to finish.

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby. Four people meet on a rooftop on New Year's Eve, you can probably guess why. I appreciated how the author deftly maneuvered among four different points of view while telling this story.

Roots - Alex Haley. This was an off-and-on read for several months, again due to the depressing nature. It's amazing. I can't believe I waited until I was 33 to read it; I'm sure I've heard of it since high school. There's quite the debate over how much is fact vs fiction online, but for me, the important thing was providing a story I hadn't heard before.

Hausfrau - Jill Essbaum. Seriously, I am having horrible luck with picking up books. This was from a LFL in Charlotte, NC. It's about an American woman who moves with her husband to Switzerland and feels trapped as a housewife and mother to three kids. She finally branches out to learn the Swiss language, and instead picks up a classmate as a lover. Of course, everything falls apart and there's a dark ending.

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr. A fantastic WWII historical fiction book with a unique take. I found myself wondering about the classical music that came across the airwaves and how it connected two spirits. This won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015.

Victoria: A Novel - Daisy Goodwin. The 1800s are brought to life in this historical re-imagining of what is was like for Britain's first queen. This was a Christmas gift.

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee. I was excited to find this sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird for $1 at a used book store. It was an interesting store, but couldn't match the original

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield. This is a "gothic suspense" novel that I picked up at a LFL. I'm not particularly familiar with that genre, but this held my attention and I read it quickly.

2018 Reading

There is no excuse for my minimal reading in the fall, especially when I was only working part-time.  Starting in December 2017, I was adjusting to a long driving commute (3 hours daily) and crossed over to podcasts as my primary entertainment. I only read a handful of books this year.

Educated - Tara Westover. Borrowed over Christmas while my mom was reading it. This book is amazing. A young woman raised by a survivalist family in the Idaho mountains leaves as a teenager, against her family's wishes, and starts her education at BYU, then goes on to Cambridge (UK) and Harvard. I struggled a little with the domestic violence hitting to close to home because of my work. It's an incredibly well-written story about a life that is hard to imagine, yet she makes you picture each scene along with her. It avoids the stereotypes and  willful ignorance of Hillbilly Elegy.

Stay With Me - Ayobami Adebayo. A LFL find and finally a break from all DV and death I've been picking up. It follows a Nigerian couple who met in college and struggle to raise children with inherited sickle-cell disease. It won a number of top book of the year awards in 2017 and is the author's first novel.

The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller who Corrupted Adoption - Barbara Raymond. Also borrowed from my mom. True account of a woman who ran the Memphis-based Tennessee Children's Home Society for thirty years and removed infants and children from their unwitting parents and placed them with adoptive families across the United States

The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Wiegl: How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis - Arthur Allen. This was a great Christmas gift from my mom. It checks all the boxes - WWII, tells a story I would have never heard of before, and broaches a discussion on the ethics of working, for the Nazis, but to develop a vaccine for typhus.

2018 Podcasts

This is a list of all podcasts I tried out this year. In December 2017, I started a new job that includes 90 minutes each way in the car. After about 3 weeks of saying, "I don't like podcasts" I started giving them a try and found out they're great! Rather than listing them by season or year, I'm going to keep the list alphabetical and build it.

30 for 30 - ESPN's short documentary films are now in podcast form. I never thought I would be so interested in the decathalon or UFC. Expertly produced, and I'd expect nothing less from ESPN. #favorite #sports

Bad with Money - a slightly annoying twenty-something who used to work at Buzzfeed discovers things like CDs and health insurance. Some of the earlier episodes were obnoxious, but her emotional reactions makes her fun to listen to. After the first season of entry level finances, she gets into systemic and intersectional issues and that is pretty great. #finance #progressive #LGBTQ #feminist

Butterfly Effect - a 7 part series that explains how PornHub was invented and how technology is disrupting the porn industry in CA. A little weird, but well researched and told. #longform

Dirty John - a true crime podcast about domestic violence affecting a LA family. I heard great reviews but had no idea what it was about. Well done, but I don't really want to listen to DV podcasts on the way to and from my job dealing with DV cases. #longform #truecrime #DV

Empire on Blood  - a true crime podcast about a black crack dealer convicted in 1995 of double homicide in the Bronx. #longform #truecrime

Heaven's Gate - eerie look into a cult's growth, dominance, and eventual demise. #favorite #longform

Not Each Other  - podcast about gender, society, culture. I had high hopes, but didn't care for the content and it wasn't well-produced so I gave up after a couple episodes. #progressive #LGBTQ

Opinionated Broadscast - rugger teammates from DC started a podcast! PRO: I know one of the two co-hosts, they're funny, they blend super liberal LGBTQ stories with DC politics in a way that makes politics digestible (I'm avoiding all other political podcasts). CON: They've had a bumpy road with tech/sound and a couple episodes are hard to hear or unplayable. They tend to ramble in a way that would probably bother a casual listener, but they mentioned addressing that with 2019 goals. #rugby #progressive #politics #LGBTQ

Serial Season 1 and 2 - Great storytelling and I appreciate the Baltimore ties in Season 1. This is the gold standard for what I enjoy. I keep googling "podcasts like Serial" to find another longer, multi-episode, well-researched story that will last a week or two of commuting. #favorite #longform

Smithsonian Sidedoor - short episodes that draw together 2-3 common story lines related to something that's in a Smithsonian museum. It's okay. #history

Stay Tuned with Preet - He's the former US Attorney for S.D.N.Y. and this should be right up my alley. I tried it twice. Can't do politics in the car, too depressing. #politics

Story Grid - two male hosts discuss how the newer writer is using the more experienced editor Shawn Coyne's Story Grid technique to write a book. It's helpful to think about different, necessary elements in a fictional story - for example, obligatory scenes - that I hadn't considered before. I eventually lost interest because I couldn't related to many of the books they use as examples (often sci-fi). #writing

S-town (Shittown) - a story of small-town intrigue focused on a grouchy, queer old man in Alabama. There's an ongoing conversation about if the journalist respected the subject's privacy enough, and I think it was done tastefully and fairly. Here's an opposing view with spoilers. #favorite

Ted Talk - I've only listened to a few, I need to check out more. #selfhelp

Uncivil - this podcast revisits the Civil War and tells stories about black people that weren't written in the history books. So far, a few episodes take place in South Carolina, including in Beaufort where I work. It also corrects long-standing rumors about enslaved people fighting for the South and where the song Dixie came from. #history #progressive

Welcome to Night Vale - a quirky fiction story about a town in the American southwest where aliens keep arriving and the dog park is haunted. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride as Cecil from Night Vale Community Radio narrates what is going on around town in 20-25 min episodes. There are 100+ episodes with more still being added, so this will keep me going for a while. #longform #scifi

What it Takes - biographies of famous people. Occasionally a little long and dry, but they play a lot of clips from actual interviews with the subject, which I like. Here's the website's summary: Revealing, intimate conversations with visionaries and leaders in the arts, science, technology, public service, sports and business. These engaging personal stories are drawn from interviews with the American Academy of Achievement, and offer insights you’ll want to apply to your own life. #biographies #selfhelp

Why oh Why  - this is the podcast I love to hate. It's a thirtysomething New Yorker trying to give dating advice, and a year into it, her relationship ends. It's entertaining at times, but I also hate her whining, her awkward guests and recorded dates, and live shows. I've listened to 3/4 of it so I'm going to finish, but I don't actually like her. #dating

Writing Class Radio - a female writing instructor leads a memoir writing class in Miami. She provides the prompts and you hear short stories from different members of the class each week. It can get incredibly personal and emotional. #writing #selfhelp #LGBTQ

2017 Reading List

2017

WINTER - SPRING

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller. This classic challenged me, and I'm not yet sure if I enjoyed it.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high (several authors). Chosen by my career book club, this was a good springboard for conversations with a slacker colleague or the boss when you find out you make 20% less than everyone else.

Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson. Most public defenders probably read this in 2014, when it topped the New York Times' bestseller list. This is one of four books that my mom picked out for me for Christmas, and it was perfect. It tells the story of a young black lawyer who creates the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, AL to aid death row prisoners and juveniles sentenced to life without parole. Some happy reprieves, some horrific situations he wasn't able to change, but it moves quickly and covers thirty years of EJI's work. Highly recommended!

The Eternal Wonder - Pearl S. Buck. A great book right until the ending.

Little Great Things - Jodi Picoult. This topped a number of year-end lists and legal thriller lists. I didn't particularly like it or believe it. I found it unrealistic the whole way through. Despite the author's afterword detailing her extensive research into former-nazis, I doubted her ability to portray white supremacists and people of color.

Over Christmas, I went through my brother-in-law's library. He has about 3 full bookshelves worth, so there is an excellent variety of books, from history to science fiction, including multiple series.

Marathon training and diet - I borrowed one book from my sister's supply. It's probably 20+ years old, but is a good reminder of some of the things I need to be doing.

The Keep - Jennifer Egan - the only thing I can positively say about this is it was a fairly quick read and had a couple twists and turns. Overall, this book requires you to suspend disbelief again and again - and at the end of the day, isn't that well written. I picked it up because of the sticker that Egan had previously won the National Book Award - and I wish I had skipped it.

Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon - a winner! I picked up this book based on the 2001 Pulitzer Prize sticker on the cover, and it didn't disappoint. I loved this immersive dive into 1940's NYC as two Jewish cartoonists find their way. The most I've enjoyed a book in a long time.

North Wind in My Spokes - a LFL pickup about competitive road biking in Europe. Acceptable writing, but not worth passing on to others.

The Blue Sweater - Jacqueline Novogratz. A LFL book about a woman who moved to Rwanda and used her banking experience to help microfinance women-led institutions. It covers some before and after the civil war, and includes the incredible fact that her favorite blue sweater, donated as a child, ended up being worn by child in Rwanda, complete with her initials on the tag. I passed it on to my mentee, a GW sophomore who had done Women's Leadership Program and was interested in International Development.

Vince Flynn - I had enough self-control to put back the other Vince Flynn book, considering I hated the first one. There are so many good books out there, I shouldn't waste my time on junk. It's hard to put back a book I intended to read, so I'm giving myself credit for deciding NOT to read this book.

SUMMER
May - July got swallowed in bar prep was preparing to take the South Carolina bar exam.

FALL

Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood. I wanted to enjoy the original as a refresher before watching the miniseries on Hulu. I picked up the paperback copy still stashed at my mom's house, read for freshman year summer reading first by my cousin, then my sister, and two years later, by me. It's still as good as I remember. The book leaves a lot unanswered, so I'm eager to see how the series fills in the storyline.