Final 19 before starting '19

In addition to all the other books I've already blogged about in 2018 (37), I read another nineteen books.  You can read my other book blogs at:

From Heartburn to Soul Food (November 17, 2018)

Reading Harder in 2018 (Part 2) (August 25, 2018)

Reading Harder in 2018 (May 28, 2018)

We're six days into the new year and I'm gearing up for this year's Read Harder Challenge.  But I wanted to take the time to bring the year to a close in the book department.  I read more books in 2018 than I've ever read in a single year - 56.  I didn't set out to read over 50 books but my usual reading coupled with the Read Harder Challenge helped me achieve that number.  

I just started following @simoneandherbooks on Instagram and I'm going to borrow her model of summarizing her 2018 reading, with a couple slight variations.    

• Number of books read this year: 56
• Number of books written by a female author: 34/56 or 60%
• Number of nonfiction books read this year: 29/56 or 51%
• Favorite new (to me) author: Ausma Zehanat Khan
• Most read author of the year: David Rosenfelt and Nora Ephron tied.  I read three more of Rosenfelt's books from the Andy Carpenter series, and I read two nonfiction books and one fiction book by Ephron.   
• Author I fell in love with: Tilar Mazzeo
• Author who most surprised me: Trevor Noah

These final nineteen titles are largely from my Amazon wish list and were borrowed from the library.  Only one title was from my personal collection. 

I tend to read a lot of nonfiction and this year proved to be virtually an even 50/50 split between fiction and nonfiction books.  I am a huge fan of biography.  So, not surprisingly, in this batch of books are several autobiographies and biographies.

I read Tilar Mazzeo's book Irena's Children early in the year and around the time we traveled to Kraków, Poland.  The book is about Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, who was part of an elaborate underground network that saved the lives of 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.  A great book that I highly recommend.  I also read Mazzeo's The Widow Clicquot, which is about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, the woman who turned a small family winery into a champagne empire in the early 1800s.  She was a real trailerblazer and reading about her life was pure pleasure.

Clicquot wrote this in a letter to her granddaughter: "...you have such audacity.  It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life. ...to dare things before others...  The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow.  One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life.  Act with audacity." 

Here's to more audacity! 

I don't want to leave this section on biographies without mentioning Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.  The opening chapter of this book about Noah's experience growing up in South Africa made me stop and just say WOW!  After reading the chapter during my lunch break, I read it aloud to Tom when I got home from work.  I learned a lot about South Africa, the challenges of apartheid and post-apartheid, the complexities he faced being a mixed child in South Africa, and poverty.  All packaged within this great love story of a mother and her son.  Also, his chapter "The Cheese Boys" is transformative -- opened my eyes to a whole new understanding of the cycle of poverty and crime.  Must read!

Sixty percent of the books I read in 2018 were by female authors.  Above are a few by the ladies. Having loved The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun, I was looking forward to Paula McLain's Love and Ruin.  The book is a fictionalized take on the love affair and marriage between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn.  I was certainly in awe of Gellhorn and her life as one of the few female war correspondents of her time, and I learned a lot about the Spanish Civil War and the run up to World War II.  However, I was not a fan of the love story between these two.  It just felt selfish, unhealthy, and ended the way it began -- infidelity.  McLain is a gifted storyteller and has an amazing ability to bring historical characters to life.  I will always read whatever she releases.

This set of six books probably falls into personal and professional development.  Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds was my final read of the year.  I enjoy watching TED talks and this book introduced me to a whole new set of talks I'll be watching in the new year.  My dog-eared copy of this book is in the office right now where I'll type up all the great tips before I have to return it to the library.  Very thoughtful book about what makes for a good presentation and it's NOT PowerPoint slides!

Stephen King's memoir On Writing is a book I read in September and still think about.  This book is probably one of THE best books I've ever read on the craft of writing.  Editing is key, and the willingness to cut those sentences or paragraphs you like but don't fit within the larger document. 

I'll wrap this up with America Ferrera's American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures.  In addition to Ferrera, the book contains essays from 31 artists, athletes, and professionals who are predominately first-generation American.  A very timely read in light of the immigration debate happening in America.

Ferrera wrote the introduction, the conclusion, and contributed a very personal essay about her father.  Ferrera's parents immigrated to the United States for opportunities and a better life.  When Ferrera was young (I can't recall how old) her father abandoned the family and returned home to Honduras.  She never saw him again.  While in Honduras for a TV special (I believe) she was able to find her father's gravesite.  I copied this quote in my journal: "I stood on the land that generations of my family stood on before me and let myself feel the full depth and complexity of the role immigration played in my life.  The opportunities and the gifts and the dreams it afforded and for the first time understanding what it truly cost."   

I think this is a very important book, and I hope teachers across America will selected it as required reading for their students.  Empathy is the word that comes to mind when I think of this book.  Something I think we all need a little bit more of.    
 
Leave a comment if you have questions about a book I read this year but didn't mention specifically in my blogs.  I love talking about books so I'd be happy to give you my recommendation.