Whew – glad that whole year is over and I have my fingers crossed and I’m knocking on wood and I’m doing whatever prayers I think will help for a better year coming up.
As a result of the 2020 troubles (all of them) and my health (etc) and moving 1500 miles I didn’t read as much this year as in prior years basically because my focus was just not available. So my total books read was only 125 books – And last year was only 133 due to my health issues which started in about July of 2019. (I’ve read 180+ in years past – 2015, 2016, etc.)
Anyway, the 125 included 37 nonfiction, -58 crime novels, and the rest were general fiction with a couple classics included. (My health is still not what it was and probably never will be but I’m better. I should get walking and eating better again – I’ve been off cigarettes for about 13+ months.
I feel my focus coming back lately. I just finished my second book for 2021 and neither was short (reviews up soon). They’re both crime novels because those hook me in better. But I’m getting ready for a good meaty book of some sort – plenty on my wish list!
These are the tops –
Mysteries and Crime. (8 books):
Lethal Defense ~ by Michael Stagg (legal)
The Law of Innocence ~ by Michael Connelly (legal)
Troubled Blood ~ by Robert Galbraith (PI)
A Private Cathedral ~ by James Lee Burke (procedural)
The Scholar ~ by Dervla McTiernan (procedural)
The Last Trial ~ by Scott Turow (legal)
A Naked Singularity ~ by Sergio de la Pava. (literary)
Goodlove and Strech series by Al Macy (4 books – light/legal)
General Fiction: (6 books)
The Glass House ~ by Emily St John Mandell
Jack ~ by Marilynne Robinson
Summer ~ by Ali Smith
The Redhead by the Side of the Road ~ by Anne Tyler
LaRose ~ by Louise Erdrich
Girl, Woman Other ~ by Bernardine Evaristo
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt ~ by Anonymous (most of this is memoir)
Non-Fiction (6 books):
Uncanny Valley ~ by Anna Wiener (Memoir)
The Great Influenza ~ by John M. Barry (History)
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat ~ by Samin Nasrat (A book about cooking)
Frederick Douglass ~ by David W. Blight (Biography)
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee ~ by David Treuer (History)
For 2021 – a better year I’m sure – I have determined to finish:
The Transformation of Virginia by Rhys Isaac
and
The Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price
Becky's Books - 
Good to see Girl Woman Other on the list, after reading some of the duds that made it onto the Booker list this year, I was a bit worried that this would be a disappointment.
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Yes! Ever since the Booker opened up it’s been sadder. I don’t know what they’re after but it doesn’t seem like a lot of literary quality to me.
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I agree, it’s been very disappointing. Even the books that I liked were not all that special…
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