detailmuse -- 2021 ROOTs

Welcome!

My main ROOT goal is to read 40 books acquired prior to 2021 -- likely lots of contemporary nonfiction and fiction. I’ll keep a list of my ROOTs (with links if I’ve posted a review) in msg #2 and non-ROOTs in msg #3.

Update: I read 41/40 ROOTs

I also have a few secondary pursuits:
• the monthly theme challenge suggested by Cheli (updates in msg >4 detailmuse:)

• to "travel" during this non-travel time by reading books with authors or settings outside of the US (updates in msg >22 detailmuse:)

• to indulge in new acquisitions when they’re at their shiniest

• to continue to triage/purge TBRs that are no longer of interest to me; this includes finishing or abandoning at least 12 of the several dozen books I've previously started but then put aside:

Update: I read 10/12

ROOTs Read in 2021:

Fiction
36. Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay (3.5)
28. Mort by Terry Pratchett (dnf)
26. Apeirogon by Colum McCann (4)
22. The Art of Breaking Glass by Matthew Hall (dnf)
20. The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead (4)
18. The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg (4)
17. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (3.5)
15. Moss by Klaus Modick (2) (See review)
13. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (4.5)
12. Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (3.5)
9. Fly Already by Etgar Keret (3)
7. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (4.5) (See review)
2. The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun (3)

Memoir
27. The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich (3.5)
25. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (3.5)
21. House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister (4)
10. The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek (4) (See review)
8. Here for It by R. Eric Thomas (4) (See review)
4. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox (4) (See review)
3. Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter (4.5) (See review)

Nonfiction
41. Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving by Mo Rocca (4.5)
40. A Social Security Owners Manual by Jim Blankenship (4)
24. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks (3)
23. Love the House You're In by Paige Rien (4)
19. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019 guest edited by Sy Montgomery (4.5)
16. The Great White Lie by Walt Bogdanich (4)
14. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill (5)
11. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit (4)
5. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (4.5) (See review)

Other
39. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 37 (4.5)
38. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 38 (3)
37. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 39 (4)
35. McSweeney's Issue 30 (3.5)
34. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 17 No 1 Spring 2017 (4)
33. McSweeney's Issue 29 (2.5)
32. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 15 No 2 Fall 2015 (4.5)
31. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 16 No 2 Fall 2016 (4)
30. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 17 No 2 Fall 2017 (3.5)
29. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 18 No 1 Spring 2018 (4)
6. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld (3) (See review)
1. Chicago: A City Above All by Barry Butler (4.5)

Non-ROOTs Read in 2021:

Q1
• Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris (5) (See review)

Q2
• The Little Black Book 2021 by Ken Untener (3)
• How to Make a Vaccine by John Rhodes (3.5)
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

Q3
• Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (3)
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (3.5)
• I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker (4)
• Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (3.5)

Q4
• Mad Men Carousel by Matt Zoller Seitz (4)
• Dusk, Night, Dawn by Anne Lamott (3)
• Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny (4)
• The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg (3.5)
•
•
•

It looks promising -- my TBRs include options for everything except a Christmas selection.

January -- The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun
February -- The Hours by Michael Cunningham
March -- The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
April -- The Great White Lie by Walt Bogdanich
May -- The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead
June -- An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
July -- Apeirogon by Colum McCann
August -- Mort by Terry Pratchett
September --
October -- Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
November -- Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving by Mo Rocca
December --

Welcome back and have a great reading year!

Hi MJ. Glad to see you back again. Happy ROOTing.

Hooray, welcome back, MJ! I expect I'll get hit with a number of BBs from your thread, I usually do!

>5 rabbitprincess:, >6 connie53:, >7 Jackie_K: Hi, great to see you! And back at you re BBs, Jackie!

It's wonderful how energizing a new year/new start/new thread is!

Hi MJ, and Happy New Year!

Glad you're back!

>9 karenmarie:, >10 cyderry: Welcome and thanks!

About my 2020 Reading
(all books, not just ROOTs)

Overall: I read far fewer books in 2020 than in any of the 20 years I’ve been keeping track. This group motivated me to meet my ROOT goal of 40, and above that I read only 13 new acquisitions.

Total books read: 53
• Fiction: 34%
• Nonfiction: 53%
• Poetry or Mixed: 13%
• Frequent tags: very different than in other years -- more short works with tags like Anthology or Daybook

Original publication date:
• before 2000: 8%
• 2000s: 15%
• 2010s: 55%
• 2020s: 22%
• Of ROOTs, the mean duration as TBR in my library: 3.8 years (some deeeeep ROOTs and then almost half of them just 1 year old)

• Paper copy: 75%
• e-Book: 25% (highest ever by far)
• Audiobook: 0% (I listen while walking but my walking pattern changed in covid)

• Male authors: 40%
• Female authors: 43%
• Mix of genders: 17%
• Author nationality: 18% non-USA
• Authors new-to-me: 24 (especially liked: Caitlin Doughty, Maggie O’Farrell, Kevin Wilson)
• “Favorited” authors with books in this year’s mix: Elizabeth Berg, Allie Brosh, Joseph Heller, Rowan Jacobsen, Sarah Manguso, Ann Patchett, Michael Pollan, David Sedaris, Jacqueline Woodson

• #TBRs Jan 1: 269 … #TBRs Dec 31: 266 … net -3 (-1% -- mostly through acquiring fewer vs. reading more)

• I rated 60% of my 2020 reads at 4 stars or above (i.e. “good” to “great”) and another 19% at 3.5 stars (“okay”). I think “comfort” factored into many of my ratings in 2020

Favorites:
All Nonfiction
Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak
Hill Women by Cassie Chambers
I'll Be Seeing You by Elizabeth Berg
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
No Laughing Matter by Joseph Heller
Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos
The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age and Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse by John Lithgow
Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay (re-read) by Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

Nice stats, MJ. Very elaborate.

Welcome back and happy reading! Interesting stats, by the way!

Ah, I'm always up for the stats! Must remember to put my 2020 stats on my 2021 thread soon.

Hi Birgit!

Re: stats, from the past few years I was disappointed to notice my proportion of non-USA authors has fallen a bit every year from a high of 34%. I don't foresee international travel this year so maybe I will do more via armchair :)

>16 detailmuse: That's a great idea.

Hi MJ!

>12 detailmuse: Impressive, reading 53% nonfiction last year. Lots of fun stats, too. Thanks for keeping them and sharing them.

Hi MJ, great stats, and good idea about vicarious travel through books! I like the themed challenge too, and I'll give it a whirl if I can find suitable books on my TBR pile.

I also like how you're taking no prisoners with the TBRs that have failed to captivate you! I had a good book purge in anticipation of moving house. Just over 100 books, most of which belonged to my late husband and were about soccer, mountaineering and war, i.e. not to my taste. Each of my children took a pile and the rest went to Marie Curie, a charity specialising in palliative care, which was fitting as we'd had their support.

There was also a pile of books that didn't belong to me, abandoned by my daughter or visitors, or passed onto me by other readers. I felt obliged/compelled to read them ALL before donating them. Can't say it wasn't time well spent! So I think you're right to focus on the ROOTs you think you're going to like and enjoy the shiny new ones while they're fresh. A sound strategy.

Have a great year of reading and ROOTing! :)

Glad you're in the group for 2021. Here we go again!

>18 karenmarie: I'm really surprised that none of the fiction I did read made it to my favorites of the year. (Well, Brokeback Mountain did, but it was a combo of the short story plus essays about adapting it to the screen.) I gave some of the fiction high ratings but the stories didn't really stay with me.

>19 floremolla: I'm not sure -- I feel like those "iffy" books are holding me prisoner :0
Congratulations on re-homing so many of your husband's books to such a good cause. Surely not an easy project, I'm glad to sense a feeling of lightness around it.

>20 rocketjk: Hi Jerry -- yes here we go again, and better!

In furtherance to >16 detailmuse: I reviewed my TBRs, tagged books with either a non-USA author or non-USA setting, and yay! -- lots of options for “travel” during this time.



1. Chicago: A City Above All by Barry Butler (Irish author)
2. Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter (Scottish author, Scotland)
3. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox (Canadian author)
4. Fly Already by Etgar Keret (Israeli author, Israel)
5. The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek (Canadian author)
6. Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian author, Nigeria)
7. Moss by Klaus Modick (German author, Germany)

8. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (Swedish author, Sweden)
9. How to Make a Vaccine by John Rhodes (English author)
10. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks (English author)
11. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (English author, Greece)

12. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (Italy)
13. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (South Korea)
14. Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Irish author; Israel, Palestine)
15. The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich (German author; Germany)
16. Mort by Terry Pratchett (English author; Discworld)
17. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian author; Nigeria)

18. Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay (Canadian author)

Happy armchair travelling!

>23 MissWatson: Thank you!



1. Chicago: A City Above All by Barry Butler, ©2020, acquired 2020

I’m happy this is my first ROOT of the year. It’s been so hard not to be able to enjoy downtown Chicago during covid. This book’s big, beautiful color photographs (by an Ireland-born, now-Chicagoan who I follow on social media) of the city’s skyline, river, lakefront and landmarks sated me a bit.

>25 detailmuse: I have a friend from Chicago who quite often shares Barry Butler's photos of the city on facebook. If the city is a fraction as beautiful as his photos make out then it's really high on my bucket list!

>25 detailmuse: Gorgeous cover!

>1 detailmuse: Happy reading and ROOTing. I enjoyed looking through your stats. Caitlin Doughty was a 2020 new to me author and I liked her writing style.

>26 Jackie_K:, >27 rabbitprincess: Chicago is a beautiful city! If you visit, a MUST-DO is the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC -- https://www.architecture.org/) River Cruise -- breathtaking views and informative docents. In fact, every tour the CAC conducts is well done.

>28 This-n-That: Welcome! What book by Doughty did you read? -- I'm planning on From Here to Eternity as my next by her.

2. The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun, ©1986, acquired 1980s

Fourth in a cozy series featuring a male journalist who solves crimes. In this installment, he’s assigned to write a gourmet food column just as he embarks on a diet, and he moves into a boarding house where other residents start disappearing. His two Siamese cats feature prominently and (apparently per usual) help him to solve the disappearances. The author refers to him as “the newsman” as often as the writers of Nancy Drew referred to her as “the sleuth”...annoying. I’m not interested in another in the series, but this was fun.

It's my January book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "a book with a color in the title."

>30 detailmuse: Growing up, I read a lot of The Cat Who... books with my dad (who Qwilleran reminded me of) so I have a real fondness for these. I'm glad you had fun :)

>31 Caramellunacy: What a wonderful experience!

>30 detailmuse: I read nearly all of these in my tween and early to mid-teen years, in my "animals as sleuths" phase of reading :) Very light indeed, and the later ones are featherweight.

>33 rabbitprincess: "animals as sleuths" phase
haha! Do you recall some others?

>34 detailmuse: Mostly Cat Who and the Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown. I also had anthologies called Cat Crimes for the Holidays and Midnight Louie's Pet Detectives, which featured other animals.

>34 detailmuse: & >35 rabbitprincess:

Check out the Chet and Bernie series by Spencer Quinn. I've only read the first, Dog On It, but it was fun. The series was suggested to me by my neighbor.

>31 Caramellunacy:, >35 rabbitprincess:, >36 rocketjk: Your comments put in mind some kids of a friend for these, but then I had fun looking into them for myself. I'm currently giggling my way through Olive, Mabel & Me, and smiles = good.

>37 detailmuse: I keep rewatching their HR meeting because it makes me laugh.

>38 Caramellunacy: It's so funny! I'm glad his videos led to this:



3. Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter, ©2020, acquired 2020

When covid put professional sports on hiatus last spring, BBC sportscaster Cotter turned his commentary to the escapades of his two Labrador Retrievers, Olive and Mabel -- and popular demand brought forth this book, a memoir (with photographs) of the dogs of his life (plus some notables from sports). It’s tender and funny; I laughed out loud at several passages and they held up to being read aloud to make my husband laugh. It’s also great armchair travel to Scotland and some mountain hiking, and inspired me to Google numerous dog breeds and Scottish locations.

>39 detailmuse: Added to my wishlist! I remember his commentary videos, but hadn't realised there was a book too.

>39 detailmuse: That sounds like such a nice read! I can always use a little more Olive and Mabel in my life.

>40 Jackie_K:, >41 Caramellunacy: yay dogs! We had 11-in (28-cm) of snow yesterday and I shoveled the walks after about 8-in. But our neighbor hadn't shoveled yet, and I laughed when I saw a woman walking her Bernese Mountain dog -- she stepped up from our walk into the adjoining unshoveled snow but the dog just stopped and refused to move until she turned around and they walked back the way they came :))

>42 detailmuse: Haha! You'd think the dog would be excited to play in the snow, given that it's a mountain dog!

>43 rabbitprincess: Exactly!



4. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox, ©2020, acquired 2020

‘If we were all to put our worst problem inside of a circle and then allowed to draw one out, we’d all take our own problem back.’

Fox has a reputation for optimism. In his first memoir, Lucky Man, his decade-old diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s Disease doesn’t even make his list of problems that spiral him into personal and career crisis. Nearly 20 years later now, his blunt struggle with PD makes me hesitant to recommend this memoir to those who have more recently been diagnosed with it. And yet…

Here again, what makes 2018 his annus horribilis is not PD but rather the surgeries and rehabs from a complicated upper-arm fracture and a threatening spinal tumor. He loves spending time with his wife and adult children; still loves golfing (badly) with buddies Harlan Coben and George Stephanopoulis; is all-in when acting roles come his way; and is dedicated to his PD research foundation. (True, let me be clear: he has the financial and social resources to manage his problems that few others do.) But he attributes optimism to gratitude, and not only is his Acknowledgements a deep gratitude to the people in his life, but that appreciation is on every page.

5. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker, ©2020, acquired 2000

This riveting read is a deep dive into the history and science of schizophrenia, delivered largely as a biography of a Colorado family where 6 of the 12 midcentury-born children have been diagnosed. It’s a harrowing story of chaos, violence and denial, with a poignant closure that I was going to characterize as resilience, but really it’s more like endurance.

January
Beginning total TBRs: 266
ROOTs read: 5
Other books read: 0
Books acquired: 2
Ending total TBRs: 263
YTD ROOTs read: 5 (year-end goal: 40)

Looks like you're off to a great start reading those ROOTs, MJ. Keep up the good work!

Nice stats, MJ. And good job on the ROOTs.

>47 Familyhistorian:, >48 connie53: I'm so glad to be enjoying reading a little more than last year.

That said,



6. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld, ©2020, acquired 2020

Meh. This is a collection of 400+ of Seinfeld’s jokes/bits from his decades of comedy, just page after page of double-spaced (boring formatting) lines of jokes, some of them familiar from his TV series or standups I’ve seen. The Index is 20% of the book :( and the Kindle links I tried from the Index don’t jump to the correct pages. I imagine that an audiobook version, with Seinfeld reading, would be more enjoyable.

>50 detailmuse: Sorry that didn't hit the spot. I often find that books based on TV programmes just aren't as funny as the original show - it goes to show how important the audio/visual side of things is, as well as the actual script.

>51 Jackie_K: So true. From whatever info I saw before acquiring the book, I'd expected something memoir-ish plus the comedy material.

7. The Hours by Michael Cunningham, ©1998, acquired 2011, first read in 2014, now a re-read

She will do all that’s required, and more.

So many women, doing what other people need/want them to do. There’s Virginia Woolf in 1923, obliging to her husband’s request that she recover her mental health in the suburbs, when the only place she wants to be is London. There’s Laura Brown, performing the duties of wife and mother in conformity-laden 1949 Los Angeles. And there’s Clarissa Vaughan in late-20th-century New York City, organizing a party to honor her longtime friend/former lover who’s been ravaged by AIDS. Each of them enduring the hours of a single day, and then the hours after those.

I first read this in 2014 -- a fascinating riff on Mrs. Dalloway, where the original novel’s author (Virginia), its main character (Clarissa), and a reader (Laura) are imagined in their own storylines. I watched the film again yesterday after I’d finished my re-read. The novel is a beautiful and melancholic tragedy; the film is devastating.

It’s my February book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "a book that is also a movie."

Hi MJ!

Congrats on a good reading January and reduction in your TBRs.

Hi Karen! - I'm happy that 2021 reading is beginning well.

8. Here for It by R. Eric Thomas, ©2020, acquired 2020

My favorite part of reading mystery novels is flipping ahead to the last chapter. Of course at that point I’m always like, “Who are all of these people? How did this happen? When did they go to Nova Scotia?” So I have to go back and reread and find out.

Aside from my giggle that this also has been my experience the few times I’ve tried to skip ahead in a book, it occurs to me that it’s an excellent approach to writing a memoir: This is who/where I am, how did I get here?

And that’s what R. Eric Thomas does in this collection of personal essays. He traces his life as an Other from “a little ball of potential (but oblivious) gay energy in a Baptist family from a black Baltimore neighborhood,” attending suburban white schools, to his life now as author and columnist and preacher’s husband. Most of the essays are riveting about coming-of-age experiences with race, sexual orientation and religion; a few edge toward Sedaris style. His honesty and self-deprecating wit captured me.

>56 detailmuse: I really like the tone of that passage - so relatable and engaging.

>57 Caramellunacy: He writes a current events/culture column at elle.com. I searched on his name there and found a lot to explore.

9. Fly Already by Etgar Keret, ©2018, acquired 2020

As in Keret’s other collections, the 23 entries here (mostly flash-length fiction) involve quirky characters in absurdist/surreal realities, often relating to family. His imagination is always clever and surprising, and I liked the first collection I read by him (Suddenly, A Knock on the Door), and even more so his memoir-in-essays, (The Seven Good Years), which was poignant and clever with insight. Here, he tires me more than delights me, and the stories are darker, with disagreeable characters. In time, I may return to his early collections to read more by him.

10. The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek, ©2020, acquired 2020

With a motivation to “stay ahead of the tabloids” and “to respond to {viewers’} outpouring of care, good wishes, and prayers,” George Alexander (“Alex”) Trebek assembles 82 short reminiscences into this memoir of his personal and professional life -- from childhood and family in Canada, through marriage and more than 30 years as host of Jeopardy! in the US, through good works worldwide, to the approach of his death last year. Accompanied by lots of photos. It is an interesting and entertaining memoir, and Alex seems a humble ordinary man, a good guy.

>60 detailmuse: I loved this book in audio and will definitely have to get the print copy! (I did borrow the print copy from the library to look at the photos.)

>61 rabbitprincess: I read it on a Kindle Paperwhite so it was a pretty utilitarian format. I avoid Kindle for books with illustrations, but here at least I finally figured how to zoom the tiny pics to viewable size! I've since heard that the print edition is lovely.

>60 detailmuse: That looks like an interesting book about Alex Trebec, MJ. I read a biography about him recently but not one that he wrote himself.

>63 Familyhistorian: Oh yes, do read it!! :D

>60 detailmuse: Definitely adding Trebek's memoir to Mt. TBR. Watching Jeopardy was such a huge part of my growing up, I'd love a chance to spend a few more hours with him.

>63 Familyhistorian:, >65 Caramellunacy: agreeing with >64 rabbitprincess: -- it's a pleasant space to spend some time!

11. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, ©2014, acquired 2020

Solnit wrote the title essay (in this collection of nine) in 2008, after attending a party where a man dismissed conversation with her about her books in order to hold forth with authority about the contents of another book (that he hadn’t read) … a “very important” book … it turns out, a book Solnit wrote. His behavior was later coined (not by her) as “mansplaining,” and let me tell you I highlighted so many passages in this essay and several others, notably those on violence and silencing. Not because there was new information, but because it was so familiar and, after these years of national bullying and gaslighting, it was cathartic.

The genies are not going back into their bottles. And this is, really, how revolution works. Revolutions are first of all of ideas.

Solnit writes with calm factuality and readability. How has she published 20+ books and this is the first I’ve read? I’ve already acquired her 2020 memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence.

12. Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ©2020, acquired 2020

Labor and childbirth serve as a jumping-off point for 39-year-old Zikora, a Nigerian now practicing law in Washington DC, to gain understanding about the difficult relationships with her mother, father, lover, and even her newborn son. It turns out to be a 34-page short story, beautifully written, but feels unfinished. I would have read a novel exploring these characters and cultures.

February
Beginning total TBRs: 263
ROOTs read: 6 (plus 1 re-read -- a ROOT but not from TBRs)
Other books read: 0
Books acquired: 2
Ending total TBRs: 259
YTD ROOTs read: 12 (year-end goal: 40)

>67 detailmuse: I love Rebecca Solnit's writing - I've read a couple of her books (Men Explain Things, and Hope in the Dark), and have at least 2 more on Mt TBR. I'm hoping to get to A Book of Migrations later this year. When I grow up (!) I want to write like her.

(touchstones not working for some reason...)

>70 Jackie_K: This is great to hear. I see she has some collections on walking, nature, travel ... good fits for these days.

Hi MJ - just popping in to say hello, hope you're doing OK!

Hi MJ, I hope you are doing fine! Happy Easter.

Hi Jackie and Connie, Happy Easter! We're doing well -- vaxxed and spring is here. I still do curbside pickups vs. going into stores; but I've had a hair appointment and scheduled some well-care and house maintenance visits. I'm starting to make baby-step efforts to return to "normal" social activities, but am largely waiting until more people have access to vaccines.

13. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ©1940, acquired 2019

“These times are too progressive {said Pa}. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves -- they’re good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on ’em.”

There were signs just ahead of the long winter of the title (Oct 1880-May 1881): the shockingly thick walls of a muskrat den; the Indian who came to town to warn the settlers. And during the unrelenting months of blizzards that followed, the prolonged outages of those "progressive necessities" forced people back to primitive ways of heating and eating.

It’s good juvenile historical fiction, with a sustained claustrophobia of cold and hunger in very tight living quarters. It's my March book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "A book with a nature word in the title."

14. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill, ©2014, acquired 2015

Before Wilder wrote the “Little House” series of children’s novels, she wrote Pioneer Girl, an unpublished memoir of her childhood on the Midwestern U.S. prairie. This edition combines the original text of Pioneer Girl with nearly a thousand additional annotations, photographs and maps that illuminate the period’s history and Wilder’s fictionalization into the novels. It’s an outstanding volume of historical and scholarly value, the annotations tedious when I tried to hurry but then fascinating and informative when I relaxed into them. It was wonderful to read the section about "the long winter" so soon after I'd read the novel.

15. Moss by Klaus Modick, translated from the German by David Herman, ©1984, translated ARC acquired 2020 through Early Reviewers

When it comes to the magnificent old pine tree whose branches beat against my upper windows, I can name it “correctly” and conceptually disassemble it right down to its molecular structure. But I have no way of describing the language with which the tree, in knocking against the window, speaks to me.

With nature themes and a meta-literature premise narrated by an aging botanist who specializes in nomenclature, I was excited to snag this novella through LT’s Early Reviewers. Then I started it, and started it again, and again… I don’t know…the passage above captured me a couple dozen pages in, but I felt I was reading the whole rest of it with glazed eyes.

March
Beginning total TBRs: 259
ROOTs read: 3
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 2
Ending total TBRs: 257
YTD ROOTs read: 15 (year-end goal: 40)

>77 detailmuse: I'm sorry this didn't hit the spot for you - it sounds like an interesting premise.

Some great reviews there - >76 detailmuse: sounds really intriguing.

>76 detailmuse: Pioneer Girl sounds fascinating. I do love illuminating annotations - especially those with maps! I've always thought it would be a fun project to do that for a beloved book - the big question is which one?

>79 Jackie_K:, >80 Caramellunacy: I really enjoyed Pioneer Girl. Wilder wrote it for adult readers, and lots of the annotations relate to editorial changes made by her daughter (also a writer) and several potential publishers, or creative licenses taken in fictionalizing the material for child readers. But lots of the notes provide history and context, which is fascinating. It's published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. A random takeaway I keep thinking about: several of Wilder's father's siblings married several of her mother's siblings -- so she had lots of "double cousins"!

>80 Caramellunacy: I have three other annotated editions that I hope will enhance the base text -- for Thoreau's Walden, Abbot's Flatland, and Shakespeare's Macbeth, none of which I've read. I think your idea of picking an already-favorite is really good.

Q1 Notes
Books read YTD (ROOTs and non-ROOTs): 15+1
Books acquired YTD: 7

Favorite ROOTs:
Hidden Valley Road
Men Explain Things to Me
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Favorite (and only) Non-ROOT:


Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris

Born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky in Germany, a cousin of Albert Einstein, Nichols wasn’t much on my radar but I’ve enjoyed many of his films and kept seeing the enthusiastic reviews this biography was getting. It’s an engaging, chronological tome of his career as comedian/ actor/ writer/ producer/ director for stage and film, with some attention to his childhood, friends, marriages and children. I’m stunned by two aspects: 1) the sheer quantity of creative work Nichols accomplished in his life, and 2) the number of sources Harris consulted to quote so many of Nichols’s colleagues and friends about the dozens of films and stage productions -- so many wonderful (some haunting) anecdotes about actors and writers and Nichols’s innovative approaches to storytelling and filmmaking. As Nichols aged and declined, I began each chapter dreading his death (yet still he worked!), and when it finally came it made me teary.

Per >22 detailmuse: I’ve been traveling via books courtesy of these non-USA authors and/or settings:
Fly Already by Etgar Keret (Israeli author, Israel)
Moss by Klaus Modick (German author, Germany)
Chicago: A City Above All by Barry Butler (Irish author)
No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox (Canadian author)
Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian author, Nigeria)
Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter (Scottish author, Scotland)
The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek (Canadian author, some Canada)

>83 detailmuse: There's a very entertaining documentary about Nichols' life, as well, very much worth seeing, I think. I have an old LP of his brilliant duo comedy work with Elaine May, much of it improvised.

>84 rocketjk: Thanks! -- I've been devouring clips on youtube/etc. Is it the documentary from HBO? -- I don't subscribe but can rent it, or maybe dvd from the library. I'm having trouble accessing the one from PBS, too :( but meanwhile am getting a little post-bio fix from a New Yorker article.

Great that you have that LP -- have you saved all your vinyl?

16. The Great White Lie by Walt Bogdanich, ©1991, acquired 1992?

The story of what happened to our hospitals in their most turbulent decade isn’t just about avarice, callousness, or stupidity. … It is an indictment of a health care and hospital system that is not really a system at all but a cobbled-together collection of policies that too often harms rather than heals. Ultimately, it is a system built upon medicine’s great white lie, a myth holding that hospitals and doctors are equally good and deserving of our complete, unquestioning trust.

That turbulent decade was the 1980s, when the federal government’s Medicare program changed its reimbursement from paying whatever was billed, to paying set amounts based on set diagnoses. In retrospect, it’s also when hospital missions seemed to morph from social service to profit. Published in 1991 as journalistic expose, this well-documented book examines how hospitals gamed and cheated the new payment system, and how severe understaffing and regulatory/accreditation inaction contributed to patient harm.

Today, this reads more as history-of-medicine -- except the history has stalled and healthcare has the same problems and more. It's my April book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "The book that has been unread on your shelf the longest.

>85 detailmuse: You're welcome. I believe I was thinking of the HBO special. Believe it or not, I think I saw it on a transatlantic flight.

"Great that you have that LP -- have you saved all your vinyl?"

Indeed I have, several thousand albums worth. I still have the first LP I ever bought (in 1968), Time/Peace, the Rascals' Greatest Hits! I have a very understanding wife.

>86 detailmuse: Ouch, that sounds depressing, although important to read.

>87 rocketjk: Wow! I can imagine a room with a turntable and good speakers; I can imagine the delicate audio pops that probably annoyed us in the past but I would love to hear again :)

>88 detailmuse: One advantage of having a lot of LPs is that it's easy to avoid playing any of them so often that they get scratched. So most of mine still sound mostly pristine. But, yes, there are quite a few, especially those I've bought used over the years, that have some pops and gurgles!

Hi MJ. I wanted to visit your thread earlier, but never got around to it up until now. Interesting reads.
I will have to look into the Wilder books.

On the LP thing. We have some too but don't own a turntable anymore. We gave some of the LPs to our son-in-law because he actually listens to them and we didn't.

I have all my vinyl still too (not that there's a huge collection, as I wasn't allowed to have a record player till I was 18. I'd have spent my entire pocket money on singles every week otherwise, I'm sure. But probably 100+ LPs). I haven't got a turntable any more, but do have my stereo from the 1990s (it was the first really grown up thing I ever bought, I was so excited it included a CD player). It originally had a turntable on the top, but unfortunately the whole thing got knocked over when my house got broken into, and the turntable was broken, although the rest of it still worked. Every now and then I buy one of my old LPs on CD (I do still play those, I haven't really got into streaming or whatever it is the young folk do these days), but you're all right, the pop and hiss do add to the atmosphere! Also seeing how badly the record might have warped from watching the needle bouncing up and down as the record goes round!

I only acquired a dozen or so LPs, a couple dozen cassettes (no 8-tracks!), then lots of CDs. I remember playing certain cassettes over and over while reading certain novels as a teen, then being reminded of those novels every time I'd hear one of the songs.

17. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith; ©2019, acquired 2020

{W}e’re doing the best we can, we really are. We’re trying to be grown-up and love each other … We’re looking for something to cling on to, something to fight for, something to look forward to … We have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine.

A failed bank robbery, plus a group of potential apartment buyers who are held hostage by the wanna-be robber at an open house, plus a father-and-son police team dispatched to intervene. That provides the setting for a character study on the modern-day effects of failed connections and strained relationships. Its humorous social satire and its format (mixing the narration with snippets of police interviews with the hostages) reminded me of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies (though not as funny and not tight, plot-wise); its gentle insights into human vulnerabilities reminded me of Elizabeth Berg (though a little preachy). I considered abandoning it, but grew interested enough in the last half.

Hi MJ!

My husband and I have 400+ albums upstairs. No working turntable. We got our daughter a portable record player a while back and let her take our duplicate albums, but I don't know if she's ever played any of them. Pops and hisses and skips are a sound I'd like to hear.

>94 karenmarie: Oh yes! -- when the stylus was lowered, those sounds were a gentle confirmation that music was imminent.

I haven’t read a volume of poetry during this year's National Poetry Month, but I loved the poem below in The Washington Post.

----------

At the Vaccination by Mary Szybist

When the needle went into my arm I swear
the light went cool -- the shadows
of the orange cones mazing the parking lot
deepened -- & the ghosts in my throat rushed
closer to my blown-down heart.
I was not going to die like my father,
said the needle, stitching me to my life.
I kept replaying it, the virus in him --
my mind like the screen on which I watched
its cruel slowness.
In my rearview, a line of cars, longer than I could see.
Here I am, I thought, becoming someone
seeable again, someone safe for someone else
to see again. I lifted my face
toward the sun, closed my eyes until I could see
the wavelets behind my eyelids
begin to move again.
I don’t know how to multiply that prayer.

>96 detailmuse: Wow, that poem is brilliant!

>96 detailmuse: >97 Jackie_K: Yes, that is brilliant. I hope to feel the same way next Thursday.

>97 Jackie_K:, >98 connie53: I do love that poem. I'm also loving the videos now by adult children (ages 30s, 40s) as they surprise their parents with a pop-in visit after all have been vaccinated. So many hugs and happy tears.

Connie, I'm so happy that your vaccination is coming up!

>93 detailmuse:
I recently read Anxious People and we had our book club meeting on it last night. I think everyone struggled with the middle of the book, as you did, but we all felt that it came together in the end. I rated it higher than you because I thought the ending was really fun.

Hi MJ. I did have my first shot last Thursday, I got Pfizer and have no side effects except for a sore(ish) arm. When I woke up on Saturday everything was fine.

>101 connie53: That's the same reaction as when I had mine (also Pfizer) - both 1st and 2nd doses.

>102 Jackie_K: Than I hope my second shot is just as painless as my first one.

>100 Nickelini: LOL it being a near-DNF anchored the rating pretty low, but the ending was redemptive.

Jackie, Connie -- same for me, sore arm for maybe 12 hours. And the slightest of headache, mostly while I slept I guess, that resolved quickly in the morning. Same for both shots. The Moderna tends to have more reactions, plus more on the second dose.

I had that headache too. Like my head was filled with fluffy clouds but too many of them to fit in my skull. Not really pain but a fulness kind of things.

I had no problems at all with my second shot. With my first shot, though, I was unexpectedly hit with a dose of dizziness and a touch of what felt like fever for maybe an hour. Came on suddenly, then faded away after 60 or 90 minutes. So I was expecting more of the same, at least, for shot #2, but in the event was free and clear. This was Pfeizer, by the way.

I participated in VAERS, the adverse-event reporting system, and got an automated text with a link to answer a few questions about how I was feeling. It came every day for the first week after each dose, then every week for maybe 6 weeks. It was silly how comforting that little robo-text reach-out felt!

18. The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg, ©2019, acquired 2020

Elizabeth Berg has published 30-some books and I’ve read all but a few. I haven’t rated any of them more than 4-stars, but it’s pure comfort when I pull out anything by her. And this novel -- about a supportive group of women in small-town Midwest, one of whom develops a romantic relationship with a homeless man -- was full of the aspects I love about Berg’s writing: dozens of perfect observations about everyday experiences and a narrative voice that’s gentle yet unflinching, she never looks away.

19. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019, guest edited by Sy Montgomery, ©2019, acquired 2020

This 2019 edition of the annual collection is guest-edited by a naturalist who’s published dozens of books, all of which I want to read.

The 26 essays captivated me with interesting topics (nerve physiology; neonatology; printer paper jams; public easement fights on private lakeshore properties). And they devastated me with catastrophes (of climate; weather; decreasing biodiversity; the impact of serious illness; the danger of fragmented medical records). Oh, and there’s “When the Next Plague Hits,” a spot-on prediction of 2020. I learned two sad new words: endling (“the last member of a dying species”), and defaunation, the animal parallel of deforestation. Not a lot of fun rabbit-holes, but many wake-up calls. I think it’s my favorite edition.

April
Beginning total TBRs: 257
ROOTs read: 4
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 4
Ending total TBRs: 256
YTD ROOTs read: 19 (year-end goal: 40)

>109 detailmuse: Unsurprisingly, that's one for the wishlist. Nature and essays, plus science - what's not to love?!

>111 Jackie_K: For sure! I have one more in my TBRs, from 2018...

20. The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead, ©2020, acquired 2020

Four years ago, when Bea’s dad came out as gay and her parents told her they were divorcing, they committed to a list of Things That Will Not Change -- foremost, their love for her and for each other. Bea narrates how they have stayed true to that over the years, and now there’s a wedding to look forward to -- her dad is marrying his long-term boyfriend, and with him comes his daughter, the sister Bea has always longed for.

This is the third middle-grade novel I’ve read by Stead, all of which tread into deep waters (family dynamics here, plus eczema and anxiety). Yet the narrative stays ’tween-focused, steady and optimistic.

It's my May book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "A book geared towards children/middle grade."

>108 detailmuse: That sounds real good! But not translated unfortunately.

21. House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister, ©2020, acquired 2020

Of all the parts of a house, perhaps the hearth is the most symbolic. Its history goes back to the very beginning of shelter, which was created as a way to protect precious fire as much as the people who gathered around it.

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house...I should say: the house shelters daydreaming.” –Gaston Bachelard

I really enjoyed this book. I’d somehow thought it was going to be fiction but it’s primarily Bauermeister’s memoir of a time, 20 years ago, when she renovated a hundred-year-old house on Oregon’s Puget Sound that had fallen into severe disrepair … and, along the way, also renovated relationships with her husband and adolescent children.

I highlighted so many passages, among them the qualities of good architecture (“firmitas, utilitas, and venustas … stability, utility and beauty”), and the differences between restoration (returning to the original state, even if outdated), renovation (respecting the original state while accommodating modern needs and personal desires), and remodeling (anything goes; it’s “the equivalent of fracking on a domestic scale”).

And I also noted a dozen books I want to investigate -- first up, the 1942 children’s book, The Little House.

22. The Art of Breaking Glass by Matthew Hall, ©1997, acquired 1997(?)

I’ve been craving an absorbing, transporting novel and was interested to pull out this psychological thriller (which I bought 20+ years ago in hardcover; I wonder where I heard of it?). And I saw it as an excellent sign when I felt real suspense in the opening scene of a man attempting to jump from the roof of one tall building to another. With the good writing of that opening, I gave it 75 pages before I DNF’d it for distractions, delays and dark, uninteresting characters including a female lead who didn’t ring true.

May
Beginning total TBRs: 256
ROOTs read: 3
Other books read: 2
Books acquired: 3
Ending total TBRs: 254
YTD ROOTs read: 22 (year-end goal: 40)

>115 detailmuse: I like the sound of that one!

23. Love the House You're In by Paige Rien, ©2016, acquired 2019

Birds are so much wiser than we! A robin builds a nest for robins. A seagull builds a nest for seagulls. They don’t copy each other or build themselves nests as described in The Birds’ Decorating Magazine.
-- Dorothy Draper

I discovered this in the gift shop of the Chicago Architecture Foundation -- it’s an interactive guide (forty 3-page chapters accompanied by self-reflective questions and activities) intended to help people realize who they really are and what they really need/want, and then the renovation and re-decorating that would make their house better suited to them. I was attracted to that reflective aspect as a way to freshly consider what I want in a house/setting as we consider a retirement relocation.

Because this is so true:

Even with all the things that are so awful, if you walk into your yard and stay there looking at almost anything for five minutes, you will be stunned by how marvelous life is and how incredibly lucky we are to have it.
-- Alice Walker

24. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, ©1995, acquired 2007

{Temple Grandin} said that she could understand “simple, strong, universal” emotions but was stumped by more complex emotions and the games people play. “Much of the time,” she said, “I feel like an anthropologist on Mars.”

That’s from the 52-page title essay about the expert (with Asperger’s syndrome) on cattle behavior and feedlot/slaughterhouse design, and I also enjoyed essays about a surgeon with Tourette’s syndrome and a man with (essentially) lifelong blindness whose sight was restored.

It feels sacrilegious to write this about the global treasure that was Oliver Sacks, but over three collections now, I just don’t connect with his essays. I love medical writing, but Sacks’ essays are more so profiles of people with neurological issues rather than case studies of the issues. I keep wanting him to pause the profile and take a tangent to explore the underlying science, but he doesn’t do the science. One passage I’ll forever remember, though, is that when sight was restored to the blind man it wasn’t an, “Aha, done and done!” moment; instead, everyone seemed surprised to realize that the man had no idea what he was seeing, that vision is a long process of the brain (not the eyes) learning to identify and interpret.

It's my June book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "A book with a place in the title."

25. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, ©1956, acquired 2017

This is an adult memoir, looking back on Durrell’s move, at age ten with his widowed mother and his three older siblings, from England to a five-year residence on the Greek island of Corfu. I’ve started it before but did so again in April, in memory of Prince Philip’s birth on Corfu.

It’s a beautiful little Macmillan Collector’s Library edition but with teeny type on packed pages. I liked some of the slapstick chaos and eccentric characters; I loved Durrell’s fascination with nature and animals; I grew annoyed with his frankly entitled family. And I thought several times about Peter Mayle’s expat essays in France; it seems a certainty that Durrell’s writings must have inspired his.

June
Beginning total TBRs: 254
ROOTs read: 3
Other books read: 0
Books acquired: 2
Ending total TBRs: 253
YTD ROOTs read: 25 (year-end goal: 40)

>121 detailmuse: That's an interesting review, MJ. What was it about Durrell that made you think about Peter Mayle? I've enjoyed the Mayle books I've read, he struck me as the type of expat who made an effort to integrate into the community, and who really appreciated where he lived, rather than expecting the locals to speak English with him etc.

Hi MJ. Trying to visit all ROOTers on this rather rainy day.

I loved the series about the Durells when it was on tv.

>123 Jackie_K: It was a positive association -- Mayle's fondness for quirky local characters and local customs. I loved his A Year in Provence (in my all-time favorites), liked a few others, didn't like his fiction at all. Looking forward to French Lessons, the last by him left in my TBRs.

>124 connie53: Hi Connie -- good to know, I've thought about watching the series. I think some episodes are available on amazon and I'd love to see more of Spiro, their go-to guy.

>125 detailmuse: I know, he is a very nice man to look at.

>126 connie53: ha! I meant "seeing" as "encountering" but a nice visual is even more enticing :)

>125 detailmuse: I enjoyed French Lessons (it was called Bon Appetit! in my edition, though had the same subtitle, Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew), although not quite as much as A Year in Provence. I think having all the same neighbours etc throughout the year made it more personal.

26. Apeirogon by Colum McCann, ©2020, acquired 2020

This novel is based on real-life men Rami and Bassam (Israeli and Palestinian, respectively), their loss (no spoiler) each of a daughter to political violence (by Palestinians and Israelis, respectively), and their coming together in a nonprofit to promote peace.

Structured as 1001 vignettes, I remember the New York Times perfectly describing it as Rami and Bassam’s life stories having been dropped and shattered, and McCann re-assembling the shards here. I love this kind of experimental structure and I loved so many passages, for example this one about storytelling:

One of the things that Steven Spielberg knew -- even as a young filmmaker in Hollywood -- is that history is in constant acceleration, but sooner or later a force, any force, must hit a curve: that curve, then, is a story that must be told.

In my year of armchair travel, this novel gives the strongest sense of place thus far. But it also felt tedious and circular, with little forward momentum, and took me forever to finish.

It’s my July book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "Your newest unread book {ROOT} on your shelf."

27. The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich, ©2007, acquired 2014

I like Heinrich’s nature writing and looked forward to this biography of his father and himself. It took me five years to get through it, mostly because I tired of the endless descriptions of his father’s work with parasitic wasps and his dismissal of Bernd. But his father’s German service in WWI and WWII is interesting; his family’s post-WWII forest hideout and eventual escape to the US is fascinating; and Bernd’s career in biology and writing is pure enthusiasm.

28. Mort by Terry Pratchett, ©1987, acquired 2008

This is my August book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: “A fantasy book,” and I made it to page 80 before I dnf’d it. It’s personal to the genre, not to Pratchett -- I also haven’t paired well with Jasper Fforde, Cornelia Funke, Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman, …

29. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 18 No 1 Spring 2018 ©2018, acquired 2018

Feeling disillusioned by recent slow-going reads, I found the variety of short stories, essays and poems in this biannual literary journal to be a perfect fit.

July-August
Beginning total TBRs: 253
ROOTs read: 4
Other books read: 3
Books purged unread from TBRs: 1
Books acquired: 8
Ending total TBRs: 253
YTD ROOTs read: 29 (year-end goal: 40)

Oh dear, sounds like you've had a few slogs in your reading lately! I hope it picks up more in September!

Yes so much reading-avoidance :( ! The lit journal is a fit though -- I've already finished another issue!

Hi MJ!

>131 detailmuse: Sorry that Mort didn't work out for you. The only Pratchett I've ever succeeded in finishing is Good Omens although I've had better success with Gaiman's Anansi Boys, American Gods, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

>132 detailmuse: Glad that you found something that fit.

Your July-August net 0 TBRs is good, right?

>136 karenmarie: Hi Karen! - Your July-August net 0 TBRs is good, right?
Well...it's not bad...yet. I'm still -13 overall in the TBRs so far this year. But you prompted me to take a look, and what started as a small decline each month has gradually leveled into these neutral months, and history says the end-of-year months will turn positive :0

    

30. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 17 No 2 Fall 2017 ©2017, acquired 2017
31. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 16 No 2 Fall 2016 ©2016, acquired 2016
32. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 15 No 2 Fall 2015 ©2015, acquired 2015

Three more issues of the lit journal, with themes of Family, Memory, and War, respectively. I thought I’d be least interested in the entries about war, but I loved more than the usual number in that issue -- especially the short story, “Flat Mommy” by Shawne Steiger (about a young family who is comforted by a cardboard cutout of Mom while she’s deployed overseas); and the poem “Quartering” by Seema Reza (read it here).

33. McSweeney's Issue 29 ©2008, acquired 2008

Everything published by McSweeney’s is creative and experimental. I became enamored of it back in 2008 and subscribed to its quarterly lit journal for a year. I enjoyed the creative physical aspects (die-cut hardcovers; multi-media/format components; delightful page layouts). But I did not enjoy the stories, so several issues have since been languishing in my TBRs. With my recent lit-journal success above, I pulled this issue out -- and did not enjoy it…too-cute, self-aware rambling narratives about 20-30-year-old men?

34. Bellevue Literary Review Vol 17 No 1 Spring 2017 ©2017, acquired 2017

Aaahhhh. Another favorite issue of my favorite literary journal, probably because its stories/essays/poems are deeply realistic. I wish more of its entries were available online to share.

35. McSweeney's Issue 30, ©2009, acquired 2009

Well, well: I liked it! Not interesting physically (except the tiny “spot” illustrations that break up the text on each page), but the stories were readable (if not memorable).

September
Beginning total TBRs: 253
ROOTs read: 6
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 5
Ending total TBRs: 251
YTD ROOTs read: 35 (year-end goal: 40)

>131 detailmuse: I feel the same about Pratchett, MJ. I read one of his books recently and decided to donate all my books by him to a friend who likes them a lot. It's not my kind of humour. "Look, I'm being so funny'.

And your stats remind me to get mine in order sometime soon.

>143 connie53: "Look, I'm being so funny'
Oh I agree! Takes all the funny away, there was some of that in the McSweeney's pieces.

36. Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay, ©2012, acquired 2020

This one snagged me with its premise of a man and his schizophrenic, map-obsessed brother. And I really liked that main storyline, although the brother seemed autistic not psychotic. I was uninterested in the sub-plots. Once, I was immersed enough in the story to be startled by some noise my husband made elsewhere in the house :0 It felt great to be in a thriller/suspense story again, I want more.

It's my October book for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "A thriller, mystery or generally creepy book."

    

37. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 39 ©2020, acquired 2020
38. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 38 ©2020, acquired 2020
39. Bellevue Literary Review Issue 37 ©2019, acquired 2019

Three more issues. These have been such a good reading fit.

And what are the chances -- that BLR issues # 39, 38 and 37 would be my ROOTS # 37, 38 and 39?!

>146 detailmuse: I think that means you have to go and buy a lottery ticket! ;)

>147 Jackie_K: LOL! My brain went loopy when I couldn't get the sequences to line up, till I realized they were two different sequences...

40. A Social Security Owner's Manual by Jim Blankenship, ©2014, acquired 2015

A practical personal-finance primer on how to optimize federal retirement benefits -- primarily regarding whether to take a lower monthly payment beginning at a younger age vs. a higher payment beginning at a later age, but also regarding basing payments on oneself's vs. spouse's earnings. The only new-to-me info: two too-good-to-be-true strategies for getting more money earlier … which I apparently didn’t know about because new rules have since eliminated those options.

Goal!

October
Beginning total TBRs: 251
ROOTs read: 5
Other books read: 0
Books acquired: 4
Ending total TBRs: 250
YTD ROOTs read: 40 (year-end goal: 40)

>145 detailmuse: I love Linwood Barclays books! They are all excellent reads.

>151 connie53: Hi Connie, I loved getting lost in the suspense atmosphere!

Met my ROOT goal last month, splurged this month by reading non-ROOTs.

November
Beginning total TBRs: 250
ROOTs read: 0
Other books read: 3
Books acquired: 4
Ending total TBRs: 251
YTD ROOTs read: 40 (year-end goal: 40)

And I started to catch up on magazines, which have languished for almost two years. I'm reading them now by season -- autumn and holidays 2021 first then 2020, then I'll move on to the New Year and winter issues of both years, then spring, then summer. I've been interested to note how the various magazines deal with (or ignore) the pandemic, will keep watching as I get back to issues from its early months...

Congrats on reaching your goal!

>153 MissWatson: Thank you! I'm usually sliding in just before the New Year :0

Hi MJ!

Congrats on reaching your ROOTs goal.



See you in the ROOTs group next year!

Woo hoo congrats on reaching your goal!

Hello MJ!

Congrats on reaching your goal



Trying to catch up on threads again. I want to wish you

41. Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving by Mo Rocca, ©2019, acquired 2019

I did ROOT one more -- this November pick for the reading challenge in >4 detailmuse: "A biography." It’s a collection of eclectic obituaries, mostly of political and pop-culture figures but also quirky obits of countries (Prussia), vehicles (the station wagon automobile), and various faux sciences (alchemy), diagnoses (homosexuality, left-handedness) and treatments (phrenology, trepanning). At turns funny and also compassionate.

>155 karenmarie:, >156 rabbitprincess:, >157 connie53: thank you so much! And to you and all:

Happy new year, MJ! See you in 2022!

Happy New Year to you too, MJ!

Good luck with your reading goals for 2022 and hope to see you in your new thread before long.

Congrats on reaching your ROOT goal, MJ. Happy New Year to you and all the best in 2022!