In 2019, I read 36 books, with the breakdown as follows:<\/p>\n
Picture books: 1 (the delightful Fireboat<\/i> by Maira Kalman, which I should have gotten around to sooner).<\/p>\n
Middle-grade and YA: 10. Highlights: re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler<\/i> by E.L. Konigsburg, which I love as much as ever. Turtles All the Way Down<\/i> by John Green, which combines regular high school stuff with bigger issues in a way I thought worked really well. <\/p>\n
Fiction for grown-ups: 18. Interestingly, I only read one translated work of fiction for grown-ups this year, and it was a graphic novel\u2014I feel like I usually read more fictional works in translation than that. Highlights: This Is How You Lose the Time War<\/i> by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which just hit so many sweet spots for me in terms of style and details. The Goldfinch<\/i> by Donna Tartt, which was totally engrossing to me and great to read while I was on jury duty. Fox 8<\/i> by George Saunders, which was smart and funny and moving and made me want to read more by him. Spring<\/i> by Ali Smith, because she’s my favorite. Conversations with Friends<\/i> by Sally Rooney, because it’s so smart and so readable and so good. Crudo<\/i> by Olivia Laing, for the same reasons. <\/p>\n
Non-fiction: 6 (of which three were translated from other languages). None of the nonfiction books I read in 2019 totally blew me away, but I liked them all. If I’m picking highlights, I think I’d say The Philosopher in the Kitchen<\/i> by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, which had some very interesting and very funny bits, even if I didn’t love all of it, and Walking<\/i> by Erling Kagge, because I like walking and I like reading about it and I really liked the parts where Kagge talks about his own more offbeat walking experiences, like walking in LA or walking through sewer tunnels in New York with an urban explorer.<\/p>\n
Plays: 1 (the excellent The Wolves<\/i> by Sarah DeLappe, which I read one weekend morning).<\/p>\n
I don’t really have specific 2020 reading goals, though there are some kids’ series I’ve never finished reading that I’d like to pick up where I left off (the Anastasia Krupnik books and the Dido Twite books come to mind) and also some books I’ve been gifted that I want to read (including Normal People<\/i> by Sally Rooney and Black Wave<\/i> by Michelle Tea).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2019, I read 36 books, with the breakdown as follows: Picture books: 1 (the delightful Fireboat by Maira Kalman, which I should have gotten around to sooner). Middle-grade and YA: 10. Highlights: re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, which I love as much as ever. Turtles All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-generalmeta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lettersandsodas.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}