Happy to have come across this thread. Sign me up. I’ve set a reading goal of 104 books for this year. I’m well on my way to achieving that. Through March, I’ve read 55 books.
In January I read:
1) You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams by Alan Cumming. Last year I read his memoir Not My Father's Son and loved it. So i decided to pick this one up. It was fine. Pretty humorous. Just not exactly what i was expecting. 3/5
2) Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo. Joy Harjo is a Muscogee Creek poet and musician. This is a memoir of her growing up. It was a very good read. 4.25/5
3) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. An Alt-History novel where in the Underground Railroad was an actual underground railroad. 3.75
4) Crazy Like a Fox by Liam O'Rourke. This is a biography on the late wrestler Brain Pillman. While I've gotten away from wrestling as I've grown older, I really liked it growing up and Brain Pillman was a wrestler that fascinated me as he lived his Loose Cannon gimmick. 4/5
5) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. A novel I've been meaning to read for years. It has two notable distinctions. One, It's consider one of the the first, if not the first, Dystonian novel and Two, it was the first book banned by Stalin. Great read. 4.75/5
6) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. A book I first read about 15 years ago or so. Over the last year or so it's popped back into my mind on a few occasions and I decided to reread it. Still a good read, 3.75/5.
7) Eat & Run by Scott Jurek. Jurek's an Ultra-marathoner and a big proponent of Veganism. This is an autobiography looking into how he got into both. 3.5/5
8) The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. A self-help book of Toltec wisdom. It'a a NYT best seller that came out 21 years ago. Another book that's been on my rador for a while and I decided to finally read it. It was...fine. It's only about 130 pages or so, but I still found it to be drawn out. 3/5
9) A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa. Ishikawa's father brought his family to North Korea after the Korean War and the book is about his life growing up there and finally his escape back to Japan. A very interesting look into the life of living in North Korea. 4.75/5
10) Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book that was turned into the movie. Having seen the movie first, I was expecting it to be closer to a biography on these women. Which it was, but it was also much broader. I enjoyed that fact. 4.5/5
11) Fall Guys: The Barnum's of Bounce by Marcus Griffin. Another wrestling book. This is from 1937 and was the first to "expose" the business. A very interesting look into wrestling of the 1920s and 1930s as it was happening. 4/5
12) The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson. A book I've had on my shelf for years and finally decided to read it. The history and rules of English is something I'm just a fan of and I enjoyed this. Although, it was published in 1990 and there are parts of it that already feel a bit outdated. 3.5/5
13) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy is an author I've meant to read more of (the only work of his that I've read is the novella The Death of Ivan Illyich). So I decided to just jump in. While I did feel it was drawn out in a fair amount of parts, overall I did enjoy this. 3.5/5
14) July's People by Nadine Gordimer. Another book I've been meaning to read for years and finally just did it. Published back in 1981 it was a look into how Apartheid would most likely finally end through war, although the war itself was not seen as it delt with one family's attempt to hid out from it. 3.5/5
15) Miracle in Motion: Living a Purposeful Life by Fr. T.J. Martinez Jr and David Warden. Fr. Martinez was the head of Houston's Cristo Rey school in Houston, when at the age of 40 he found out he had Stage 4 Stomach Cancer and less than a year to live. I'm personally a sucker for this last lessons memoirs (The Last Lecture, Tuesday's at Morrie's, ect). 3.75/5
16) Pennsylvania Scrapple: A Delectable History by Amy Strauss. I just happened to walk into Barrens and Noble and at the front of the store was a table of books by local authors about local interests when i saw this Picked it up on a whim. Just a fun little book. My main take away from it is some restaurants/dinners/bars to try to see if their scrapple is really as good as it sounds.3.5/5.
17) Out by Natsuo Kirino. A Japanese Crime Thriller/Suspense novel. While it's not a mystery novel, I still don't want to say much about the plot itself. Maybe a little longer than it needed to be, but very enjoyable. 4.25/5
18) Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. January 1st was the 200th anniversary of the novels publication, so I decided a reread would be in order. I still like it. 3.5/5
19) Dear Girls Above Me by Charles McDowell. When this Tweeter account was still popular 5 years ago it got it's own book, which has been sitting on my shelf for years. Another book I decided to finally got off the TBR pile. It was a quick read, which was what i was mainly looking for. Shocking no one, a Tweeter account only makes for at best an ok read. 3/5
20) An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. As the title says, a historical book going into a lot more detail of the Native American experience beginning in Pre-Coilumbus and going into the 21st Century (the book was published in 2014). It can be a bit dry and a litle drawn out, but if you want to know a lot more than what's taught in history class it's a good read. 4/5.
21) Paradise Lost by John Milton. With it being Frankenstein's 200th anniversary, I came across a challenge where, besides reading Frankenstein you also read the three books that the monster does in the novel. Those three being; Paradise Lost, Sorrows of Werter, and a volume of Plutarch's Lives. I figured why not and picked Paradise Lost to read first. It's an epic English poem from the 17th century, so the english is a trip to read. If you're able to deal with that, the story from the fall of Satan up through the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden is good. 4/5.
In February I read:
22) The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Taoism and Winnie the Pooh? What's not to like. The answer, the author. I found Hoff to be quite pompous. Liked the concept of the book, but not the writing. 2.75/5
23) Wild Seed by Octavia Butler. The 1st in her 4 part Patternist series, although the series was written out of order, so it was actually the 3rd book in the series that she wrote. 4.25/5
24) A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew Henson. This is Henson's memoir of the 1909 expedition, led by Robert Peary, to the North Pole. 4/5
25) Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler. The 2nd in her Patternist series, Also the 2nd book written. 3.5/5
26) Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth. The autobiography of a former slave. It was interesting because from birth until her escape in 1826, she was a slave in New York state. The northern slave experience doesn't seem to be something that's overly documented, so reading about it was illuminating. The book also dealt with her life after slavery as a abolitionist, feminist, & preacher. 3.5/5
27) Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. Baldwin's first collection of essays. Excellent read. 4.5/5
28) Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler. The 3rd in her Patternist series. 3/5
29) The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Like Paradise Lost, this was a book read by Frankenstein's Monster in the book. Interesting due to it being written in diary form. However, I found the protagonist to be annoying and I don't think that was what von Goethe was going for. 3.25/5
30) Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Wells-Barnett's famous 1892 pamphlet that shed light on, to the rest of the world, the practice of lynching in the south. 4.25/5
31) The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Collecting two of Baldwin's popular essays, My Dungeon Shook - Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation & Down At the Cross - Letter from a Region of My Mind. Both great essays. 4.25/5
32) Black Cowboys of the Old West by Tricia Martineau Wagner. 10 short (~15 pages each) biographies. The cowboys covered range from cattle ranchers to rodeo stars to the more Hollywood idea of what a cowboy is. 4/5
33) Pattermasters by Octavia Butler. The 4th in her Patternist series and the 1st that was written. 4/5
34) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. Another unusual autobiography of a former slave, in that Olaudah was actually taken from Africa as a child and his time in slavery was in Britten and the West Indies, not areas usually covered in the US when talking about slavery. Also unusual is that he spent fair bit of his time as a slave as a sailor. 3.75/5
35) Nobody Knows My Name; More Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. Another collection of Baldwin's essays. 4.25/5
36) Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer. Very good short story collection. 3.75/5
37) The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow. When I first saw this book I saw its genre listed as Bildungsroman. That that was a new one for me, but in translation it pretty much means coming of age, which this novel of a biracial girl growing up is. I found it to drag in places though. 3.25/5
38) The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas. Written in 1926, it details Wallas' four stages of his theory for the creative process. Very interesting concept but it's written very formal and can be pretty dry. 3.75/5
39) Clotel: or, The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown. Written in 1853 this is considered to be the first published novel by an African-American. Set in the 18th century, it tells the fictional tale of two slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. 3.5/5
40) Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. Very well researched biography on Ona Judge and the emancipation laws of various northern states in the late 17th century 4/5
In March I read;
41) African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Martineau Wagner: 10 short biographies (~12 pages each) of some fascinating women. 4/5
42) Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth: I've watched Call the Midwife since PBS started airing it. I've been meaning to read the memoir it was based off of for a while. Now seemed like a good time to get round to it. 4.25/5
43) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: Phew, where to start with this book. Part science history of the HeLa cells, part biography of Henrietta Lacks, part biography of her child, part memoir of Skloot's pursuit of getting to be allowed to tell Henrietta's story. There's a lot in here. And it's good. 4.25/5
44) Trail Sisters: Freedwomen in Indian Territory, 1850-1890 by Linda W. Reese: A historical look at African American women and their connection to Native Americans. From slavery through the Civil War and after. An interesting read 3.75/5..
45) The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shinning Women by Kate Moore: In the early 20th Century radium was seen as an absolute wonder. However, once the women that were working closely with it started to get sick no one could figure out why and the companies they worked for did everything possible to not have to link back to radium. A great read on what became a groundbreaking workers' rights case. 4.5/5
46) Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes: Pretty good biography, with one caveat; this book is just as much about George Antheil. It switches back and forth, pretty much chapter by chapter, between Lamarr & Antheil. 3.5/5
47) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin: Personal favorite book of mine. I've read it multiple times. a sci-fi groundbreaking classic. 5/5
48) Around the World on Two Wheels by Peter Zheutin: A biography on Annie Kopchovsky (aka Annie Londonderry). In 1894 two wealthy men made a bet that a women couldn't ride around the world on a bicycle (as Thomas Stevens had a few years earlier) and Annie accepted the challenge. Or did that bet never actually occur? Either way, Annie, a woman looking to reinvent herself, went on a incredible journey that along the way raised many questions about what a Victorian woman was capable of. 3.25/5
49) Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy: A great historical look at the American women code breakers. 4.5/5
50) Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilmam: Before reading this the only work of Gilamn's I had read was The Yellow Wallpaper, which I liked. This was an interesting concept, but not well written. I know it was originally written in serial form for publication in her magazine, but that can only account for so much. Plus, while she's considered a lead in early feminism, boy does she have some racist and eugenicist takes. 2.5/5
51) The Crux by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: So I was reading this at the same time as Herland, and nope still not that great. After reading this, I saw a review that described it as a manual on how to not get gonorrhea masquerading as a novel and yeah that seems about right as for as the writing of the novel goes. 2.5/5
52) Sally Ride - America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr: Biography of Sally Ride. Pretty good read. However, as Sherr discloses early on Ride & Sherr were friends and I do actually think having a friend write the biography takes away from it a bit. 3.5/5
53) The Awakening by Kate Chopin: Written in 1899 this was a groundbreaking feminist novel. It's a well written book that dealt with a woman trapped in a marriage who commits infidelity. This was so shocking that Chopin never published again and the book was quickly swept away until it was rediscovered in the 1960s. 4/5.
54) Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunnes, Butcher of Men by Harold Schecter: Well researched and interesting historical look at Belle Gunnes, who between 1902 - 1908 literally butchered anywhere from 25 to 40 people. However, the writing is just no. Multiple issues, among them,an African American woman had a nickname that would be tipical for that time and Schecter continually used it during the book, which just no. 2.5/5
55) Flying for Her Country: The American and Soviet Women Military Pilots of World War II by Amy Goodpaster Strebe: A good historical look at the women who flew for their countries during WWII. This is really more of a historical look, so if you're looking for something more personal of biographical of the women it wouldn't be this. Good for what it is. 4/5