The nonfiction/fiction ratio was off as well -- typically it's closer to 50/50, but this year I read predominantly fiction, and fairly lightweight stuff, possibly due to the minor amount of stress caused by selling a house, moving, and buying a new one. I seem to have read a lot of humorous mysteries. Hm.
Nonfiction
I started a project to read a book about each of the fifty states, but got bored with that right before reaching Iowa. I just didn't find the books all that great. The rest was a hodgepodge of this, that, and the other thing. One day, for instance, at the used bookstore in Richland, I found Life in a Putty Knife Factory on the $1 sale table, and bought it solely for the title. It turned out to be a book of humorous essays from the 1940s by H. Allen Smith, who was widely read in his time, and author of a novel called Rhubarb (later a film) about a cat who owns a baseball team. Go figure. I tracked down a couple of other similar books by him, and enjoyed the humor as well as the time-capsule aspects of 1940s popular U.S. culture therein.
That's often how I find books -- happenstance via random browsing. So I found the perfect volunteer gig here, at the Friends of the Library used book sale room. New donations come in every day, and during my once-a-week shift I scour the shelves for fabulous new finds. And at a dollar a book, you can't go too far wrong (or too broke!).
Nonfiction read:
Victoria's Daughters (J Packard) - fascinating bio of Queen Victoria's daughters
Alabama: One Big Front Porch (K Windham) - amusing
My Life in France (Julia Child) EXCELLENT
Coming into the Country (J McPhee) - the Alaska book. OVERWRITTEN.
Sculptor's Daughter (Tove Jansson) - autobiography, rather light
Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra-Strength Bathroom Reader - trivia/humor
Arkansas/Arkansaw (B Blevins) - one of the better State books
Off Speed (T McDermott) - fun history of pitching!
California's Frontier Naturalists (R Beidleman) - overlong
Greetings from Colorado (J.C. Leacock) - lightweight
Stories in Stone (J deBoer) - the Connecticut book, geology. So-so.
Colonial Delaware (J Munroe) - or, how to make history mindnumbingly dull
Going Back to Bisbee (R Shelton) - the Arizona book, good in parts, not in others
Oh, Florida! (C Pittman) - fascinating and frightening
Architecture of the Old South: Georgia (M Lane) - lightweight
Unfamiliar Fishes (S Vowell) - Hawaiian history well-told
Dollars and Sense (D Ariely) - money and psychology, so-so
Story of Civilization v6: The Reformation (Durant) - making my way through the series
Chicago's Greatest Year: 1893 (J Gustaitis) - not too horrid
A Girl Named Zippy (H Kimmel) - the Indiana book - depressing
Uncle John's 25th Bathroom Reader - yes, I read in the smallest room in the house
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (E Shell) - should have been a lot better
Life in a Putty Knife Factory (H Allen Smith)
Lost in the Horse Latitudes (ditto)
Low Man on a Totem Pole (ditto)
Fiction
This year I discovered Charlotte Macleod, and I can't imagine why, in all the many decades I've been devouring mysteries, I hadn't encountered her before. She wrote mainly in the 1970s-80s, with amateur sleuths, in a cozy, humorous fashion, which is precisely my thing. She had several series, one under a pseudonym (Alisa Craig). I didn't care for one of them, but I gobbled up the other two series and enjoyed them tremendously.
I also did a bit of re-reading here and there, and made a couple of attempts to branch out from my comfort zone. And then I went right back to the mysteries. I find them relaxing, and since I do the bulk of my reading in the couple of evening hours before falling asleep, that's exactly what I need!
Fiction read:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (S Alexie) - branching out. It was okay.
Archyology: The Long Lost Tales of Archy & Mehitabel (D Marquis) - disappointing
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - a re-read, and not an enjoyable one
Money for Nothing (P.G. Wodehouse) - amusing stress relief
The Small Bachleor (ditto)
Summer Moonshine (ditto)
Winterhouse (B Guterson) - fantasy, entirely forgettable
Point of Sighs (M Scott) - fantasty, with too much plot
Murder on the Lusitania (C Allen) - enjoyable, though sequels were repetitive
Murder on the Caronia (ditto)
Murder on the Marmora (ditto)
Murder on the Salsette (ditto)
Murder on the Oceanic - I shouldn't have read these all at once
Murder on the Celtic - though I did like the early 1900s ocean-liner settings
Murder on the Mauretania - just didn't have enough variety
The Case of the Hook-billed Kites (J.S. Borthwick) - birding mystery, not too bad
The Grave's a Fine and Private Place (A Bradley) - solid entry in the Flavia deLuce series
Death's Bright Dart (V.C. Clinton-Baddeley) - older mystery, so-so
The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain (A Craig) - fun stuff
The Grub-and-Stakers Quilt a Bee (ditto - the pseudonym of Charlotte Macleod)
The Grub-and-Stakers Pinch a Poke (silly fluff)
The Grub-and-Stakers House a Haunt (rather over the top)
The Grub-and-Stakers Spin a Yarn (not to be taken seriously)
Murder in an English Village (J Ellicott) - a disappointment
A Rant of Ravens (C Goff) - if only the heroine hadn't done stupid things
Jade Dragon Mountain (E Hart) - 1700s China setting, very good mystery series!
White Mirror (ditto)
City of Ink (ditto)
Awkward Squad (S Henaff) - new French mystery series, policewoman hero, good stuff
Stick Together (ditto)
Trouble in Nuala (H Steel) - India setting, not much to it
The Chinese Nail Murders (R van Gulik) - a re-read. Eh.
A Very Private Enterprise (E Ironside) - yet another disappointing mystery
Family Vault (Charlotte Macleod) - the series I didn't care for
The Plain Old Man (ditto)
The Withdrawing Room (ditto)
The Palace Guard - hey, I gave it a fair shake
Rest You Merry - the Macleod series I enjoyed, academic setting
The Luck Runs Out (ditto)
Wrack and Rune - I admit they get rather silly
An Owl Too Many (ditto)
Exit the Milkman (ditto)
Something in the Water - silly and peculiar at the same time
Something the Cat Dragged In (one of the better ones)
Vane Pursuit (still silly)
The Corpse in Oozak's Pond (ditto)
Murder Fantastical (P Moyes) - another older writer newly discovered
Down Among the Dead Men (ditto)
Death on the Agenda (ditto) - a lot more serious than Macleod
Death and the Dutch Uncle (ditto) - a bit too much politics
Dead Men Don't Ski (the first in Moyes' series)
Johnny Under Ground (the series is police procedural)
Murder a la Mode (they're okay, but not that captivating)
A Six-Letter Word for Death (this one was pretty good)
Many Deadly Returns (but eventually I got bored by them)
The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog (E Peters) - a re-read
The Last Camel Died at Noon (ditto)
Now it's on to 2019 reading. Happy New Year!
I really enjoy your commentary. If I were less lazy I might do the same but, as I note in my long intro, I often can scarcely remember what the book was. Say, have you read that new mystery “Stealing Home”? I found it under my Christmas tree. It was pretty good, though I was wrong about the murderer.
ReplyDeleteI did notice your lack of commentary when I perused your list. And I seem to recall reading that mystery, which I seem to remember didn't include an actual murder, only an attempted one. Or perhaps I'm thinking of a different book? Anyway, it was delightful, though of course, I figured out Whodunit quite early on.
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