Favorite Reads of 2020

Whenever the Goodreads "Best of..." voting rolls around, I'm always predictably disappointed. I don't seem to read the same books as everyone else, or certainly not the books the industry pushes the hardest. Which means some books I loved don't even get a nomination, and others which I found meh or meh-plus are semi-finalists. What the heck? And you can only vote for the nominees or else, as in the presidential election, write in a candidate on principle, knowing you are throwing away your vote.

If you suffer from this same frustration, I recommend you start a blog, so you can at least have the satisfaction of putting your choices out there and having 5-10 members of your family read about them.

Since I haven't done this for a while, may I remind my 5-10 readers that I don't at all feel bound to choose books published in 2020 because I often enjoy reading books that have been out a while and are available from the library without six-month waitlists.

So let's get to it.

Favorite "Huh--I never thought about that" Reads:

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask. My kind of nonfiction. This super-fascinating book explores the history of assigning addresses to people, and the effects it had. Mask travels the world, looking into Empress Maria Theresa having houses numbered in and out of Vienna, to street-naming as revolutionary act in Iran, to buying vanity addresses in Manhattan. She relays eye-opening research on the fate of too many Martin Luther King Jr. Avenues and investigates the difficulties of finding a job or getting emergency medical care if you don't have an address because you're homeless or live in unnumbered slums. A very worthwhile, interesting read.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. This book fascinated me. It combines natural history, fashion history, true crime, and the weird subculture of men who tie Victorian-style salmon flies using exotic feathers of endangered or extinct birds, Johnson dives into a burglary I never heard of and makes me care about it exceedingly. Be careful about giving it to any friends who weep uncontrollably over animal fates because this will likely send them into an emotional spiral. 

Favorite Book-Soon-to-Be-a-Major-Motion-Picture:

Actually, the latest movie version was supposed to be out in a couple weeks, and I fully planned on going to the theater to watch it, as a birthday present to myself (since I couldn't get anyone else in the house to read the book). Now we must wait until October 2021, but at least I got to see the trailer on the big screen, when I went to see Tenet with fifteen other brave, adventurous souls.

The Emperor of Some-Silly-Name has given the spice-drug-laden planet of Arrakis to the House of Atreides to run, but there are competing factions in play, and violence and betrayal ensue. Duke Leto's son and his mother the witch-concubine escape. Could they be the fulfillment of prophecy?

May I just say, there are not enough mother-son adventure stories? I loved that part and found myself recommending the book to other mothers of teenage sons. (I tried to hype it up to my own teenage son, but he finally said, "You're not going to tempt me with that book." So stubborn.)

Favorite Series (and latest installment)

I come to sci-fi late in life, having exhausted many favorite genres after decades of voracious reading. Apart from discovering new favorite genre classics (see Dune above), I'm also enjoying some current authors, like Martha Wells and her wonderful Murderbot series. Network Effect is the fifth(?) installment, and the first of novel length. I love the entire series, where Murderbot, a cyborg security unit who has gone rogue and possibly has a murderous past, wrestles with existential questions, relationships with humans, lots of deadly combat, and the age-old question of which TV series to binge-watch next. Funny and exciting. I made my family Zoom book club kick off with All Systems Red, the first in the series, and everyone gave it high ratings except my 17-year-old, who dinged it with a 6 out of 10. Ouch.

Favorite Sports Book, Even for Non-Athletes

This was a walloping good read, and I'm not even a runner and hate running! But this book had me out this morning running little 5-meter barefoot sprints in the dewy front-yard grass (my quarantine equivalent of a Leadville 100) and Googling all sorts of places and people. The side trips into human running physiology and evolution and hunting and shoe-design were super interesting--maybe even my favorite part. Long live the Tarahumara, and everyone else stay out of their canyon.

Favorite True (White-Collar) Crime

I couldn't put this one down. Clearly I've been under a rock because I never heard of Theranos before picking up this book. Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter, tells the story of the meteoric rise of Elizabeth Holmes and her groundbreaking company, which promised to put quick, convenient, versatile finger-prick blood testing in every Walgreens, Safeway and army base, if not in your very own home.

I was hoping for a little nostalgic visit home, like when I read the also-wonderful The Innovators, but this turned out to be quite the thriller as well. A thriller punctuated with familiar places--the Fish Market! Page Mill Road! Wilbur Hall! Fuki Sushi!

Favorite Mindbender Thriller

My first book by this author, but it won't be my last! A mind-bending, time-bending tale of a scientist who explores the nature of memory and ends up building a Destroyer of Worlds. Quite page-turning, at times. If you like physics and philosophy, you'll find this a good read, though that makes it sound heavier than it is.

I've never been much of a thriller reader, and character development isn't Recursion's strong suit, but I love a good plot, and this book has that in spades. (This was a 4-star read for me, unlike the other 5-stars in this post.)

Two Great Social-Issue Nonfictions, One Encouraging, One Discouraging

(I'll let you read them both and guess which I thought encouraging and which discouraging!)

Dreamland. This 2015 explores the parallel tracks of Purdue Pharma (and its wildly bestselling OxyContin) and a community in Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico (and its wildly bestselling heroin), which dovetailed to create an addiction epidemic nationwide. Well-researched and compelling, Dreamland is alarming, infuriating, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful. I wish it could have an updated chapter on the introduction of fentanyl to the picture.

Whether you're interested in criminal justice reform or know nothing about it, Brittany Barnett tells a compelling story. Interweaving her own family story of her mother's crack addiction and subsequent prison sentence with the plights of other families in the same situation, Barnett explains how the sentencing mandates put in place by Clinton and upheld until Obama impacted low-level dealers, users, and other non-kingpins unjustly. I remember the "three strikes" law being passed in California and not being aware at all of how such a law would play out across the socioeconomic and racial spectrum. It was a different era, for sure.

 I echo what Barnett says of herself at one point, that she wishes there were more of her, so she could both practice the corporate law she loves and also save those unjustly condemned to life imprisonment. Yes--it was a shame she eventually gave up her corporate law career because of how vitally important it is to have more women and POC in the "room where it happens," both to inspire others to achieve and to share their unrepresented perspective.

Favorite Formulaic Harlequin Author

Oh, my goodness! In addition to exploring some sci-fi and fantasy, 2020 marked my first foray into Harlequin romances. My mom recommended an old-timey author named Betty Neels, so I gave her a try and ended up reading maybe five or six Betty Neels books this year. But I can safely tell you that, once you've read one Betty Neels book, you've read them all. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you're looking for a comfort read.

All Betty Neels books feature a young, capable English nurse, who is more often plain than otherwise. She falls for a tall, broad-shouldered, brusque, handsome, older Dutch doctor/surgeon, and, at some point in the story, visits the Netherlands and stays with his older female relative, worrying all the while that the hero is actually in love with some pretty Dutch girl in his social circle.

Because Betty just seemed to do Find/Replace on the characters' names as well as the Dutch town visited in each book, and to flip a weighted coin as to whether the heroine would be plain or not, I wonder if I wasn't the only reader to enjoy most the first Betty Neels I picked up, because it was all fresh, that time around. In my case, that first book was Cassandra by Chance, and I really did enjoy it. In this case the capable young nurse meets the Dutch doctor while he's on medical leave for blindness(!) on some Scottish island. A very sweet story. And how pleasant to read romances that don't have the requisite five pornographic scenes! These books can be recommended to family members without a blush. (Caveat: my 21-year-old daughter did not find it as charming as I did. Nor did she go on to read five more variations, as I did. I guess one generation's comfort read is another one's cringe-inducer?)

Favorite Book That Did Make the Goodreads List

A page-turning family story that also manages to be about race, identity, yearning, brokenness, connection, and America. I appreciated the roundness and complexity of all the characters--when one identical twin abandons her sister to pass as white, Bennett digs into what motivates each woman and what that costs. What it costs themselves and their own daughters.

 Recently I read Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown, one half-comic theme of which was that the story of race in America is mostly framed as black and white, or black versus white. All other races get the bit parts, the roles of extras in the exciting police drama. It's certainly the case in The Vanishing Half, and I even grinned when a black family moves into the white neighborhood, and the black husband earns his living playing a black cop on TV. But Bennett recognizes that feeling split down the middle, or feeling rootless, or feeling alienated from even large parts of yourself, is not limited to the black experience. Stella Vignes is not the only one going to great lengths to deny and forget who she was born as. There is also Reece, a transgendered young man who binds himself and injects himself with street steroids. Both characters are treated with sympathy by their creator, but the high price of their choices is never overlooked.

I hear HBO is adapting it, though I have no idea how they can ever cast it, and there weren't a lot of topless scenes, which is kind of HBO's bread and butter. Do yourself a favor and read the book, which is sure to be much better. The only drawback of giving it as a gift is that they're probably already sure to have read it.

 And finally...

Favorite Historical Regency Romance Series I Wrote

Cheating here, since this is actually the only Regency Romance series I've written. I'm still waiting on the official reviewers, but here are some emails readers have sent me:

"LOVED the Naturalist!!  Very well written & loved it.  Characters were great & couldn’t put it down."

"Loved the book. Didn’t grade papers for three days since I couldn’t put it down."

"Christina--I finished your book last night at 1am...I really enjoyed it."

Have a happy holiday season, 2020-style! The best thing about running out of shows to watch is that there are so, so many wonderful books to read.

Your 2015 Christmas Book Shopping List

Hey, all! I'm sorry I totally forgot to post about Literary Night this year, which was all about the American West and super fun, but at least I made the connection that Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are coming up shortly, once we've emerged from our yearly food coma.

Therefore I present my annual list of recommendations, and I do hope you'll purchase at least one of them at a local bookstore. My favorite University Book Store Bellevue offers free gift wrapping, so I always make a visit, and on Small Business Saturday, the books are 20% off!

For the history buff...

Never heard of photographer Edward Curtis? I hadn't either. But we have him to thank for capturing in their traditional dress what remained of the many tribes who used to populate America. Because Curtis lived in Seattle when he wasn't running all over the country, there's plenty of fascinating local lore, à la The Boys in the Boat. Because of this book I now know who Asahel Curtis was, he of the I-90 exit! Because of this book, I now want to tour the Rainier Club and Tulalip Casino! Teddy Roosevelt makes more than a cameo appearance, as do famous Native Americans. I found this an unputdownable five-star read. But then, I'm a definite history buff. This book is worth getting on paper so you can get a look at the photographs--the Kindle version I read didn't do them justice.


For the history of science buff...

Loved this one, too. It starts with Lord Byron and his gifted daughter and follows the history of computing to the present. Having grown up in Silicon Valley to parents in the computer industry, I have fond memories of the places and companies covered in the book, but there was so much more to the story! We live in exciting times, thanks to all those innovators across history.


For the fuzzy "people person"...

And then there are those who bemoan our enslavement to electronics and social media. Make those folks super happy with this book that tells them how much "healthier, happier and smarter" they are because they make the time for face-to-face contact! Lots of fascinating looks at different cultures and studies. This book will make you want to call up dear friends and maybe have a few great-aunts and -uncles move in with you.


For the person who does NOT want great-aunts and -uncles moving in...

This was a flat-out wonderful, humane book that I wish every person on the planet could read and then talk about in a global book club. Gawande, the surgeon-author of Complications, talks about the end of life and everything connected with it: quality of life, nursing homes, what makes life meaningful. If it sounds depressing, it's not. I've taken to asking hospice nurses I run across in daily life what their favorite local homes are and why.


For the foodie...

Now, if you ever venture over to my UrbanFarmJunkie blog that I do for the Bellevue Farmers Market, you know I love to buy, prepare, eat, and read up on Real Food. After all the Michael Pollan books and is-fat-good-or-bad books and carbs-are-the-Antichrist diets, The Dorito Effect achieves the near-miracle of (1) having something new to add; and, (2) saying it very well. Schatzker traces the effects of our predilection for flavor on our diet. It turns out we'll do just about anything for it, whether or not the flavor is real and whether or not the masked food is any good for us, as will all the animals in our food chain. Absolutely fascinating.


For the literary type...

For a fellow as written about as Shakespeare, it's hard to come up with new angles and new things to say, but Shapiro does it in this book. I learned much and came away with a zeal to see some plays again. I love how he doesn't just read the plays as an academic, but also from a practical perspective. For example, academics love to think whether one actor doubled as Cordelia and the Fool in King Lear, but Shapiro points out which actor Shakespeare was writing the Fool part for and which teenage boys would've been available to play women's parts. So, if there was any doubling, it didn't happen in Shakespeare's time! Another interesting bit is about the religious aspects of the play, which my hub wrote his dissertation on twenty years ago (making many of the same points). Nice to know I married a visionary man who was decades ahead of his time, thought-wise.


Speaking of religion...

If you've got a Bible buff on the buy-for list, this was an enthralling read. Kushner was raised Orthodox Jew, growing up arguing Bible readings around the supper table, and she didn't encounter the Bible in English until grad school. Imagine the shock to her system when she heard how some long-familiar passages were translated! Actually, I didn't find any deal-breakers in her discoveries, but her discussions of particular passages inspired new thought paths. I even bought two translations she cites that I particularly liked. Can't wait to read those versions when I come 'round to Genesis again!


Oldy-but-Goody YA...

So the last Hunger Games movie opened to deflated box office numbers, and people speculated that we might be getting sick of dystopian YA. Ya think?

Here's my review from Goodreads of Up a Road Slowly:

Awww...so glad a Goodreads friend reminded me of this beloved girlhood book. Old-fashioned coming-of-age story. The protagonist doesn't save the (dystopian) world or kick anyone's a** or even have cancer--she just grows up and learns compassion and wisdom and love. Her spinster aunt even offers the politically-incorrect advice that a woman isn't "complete" until she loves a man, which I would only amend to "until she loves someone" because Aunt Cordelia's completeness came a lot from investing in and loving Julie.

For the sports buff...

If you loved The Boys in the Boat or Rome 1960 or The Perfect Mile, you'll enjoy this oldy-but-goody sports book, written about some folks trying to make the Olympics in the pre-Phelps era. My son (who swims) has read it twice, and we even engaged in swim tourism, going to visit the Santa Clara Swim Center where most of the book takes place. This book should not be moldering in forgotten-ness. It's gripping, with all the thrill-of-victory/agony-of-defeat twists and turns we love in our sports books.


And finally, good old fiction...

The best fiction sucks you into another world, this one being the island of St. Thomas in the 1800s, where we follow the life of painter Camille Pissaro's mother. The writing is lovely, the characters absorbing, the setting vivid, and the plot points somewhat history-based. A great escape.

My Best Books of 2014, for Your Reading and Gift-Giving Pleasure

According to Amazon and Wal-Mart, Black Friday alone cannot contain our Christmas shopping zeal, and the season has begun just about...now!( I'm not sure why anyone would pick on those two alone, since heaven knows the stores barely throw the Halloween stuff in the clearance bin before they set up the Christmas trees.)

If you're a wretched gift-giver like me, my annual list of Best Books to Give will come as a welcome relief. And if you're also mall-allergic like me, much of your shopping will happen online. But please do make an exception for a book!

This Saturday, November 29, is Small Business Saturday--a time to pour moola into your local economy and support those stores owned and operated by your friends and neighbors in the community.

Not only does my local bookstore University Book Store Bellevue offer free gift-wrapping and shipping, but I'll be there on Small Business Saturday from 2-3 pm to sign my books and recommend others (from this post) for everyone on your list!

Hanging out at University Book Store Bellevue

So come on by on Saturday, November 29, and keep me company. Rumor has it you'll find other cool authors there like Justina Chen (one of my 15YO's favorites) and Robert Dugoni!

What will you buy that day? Well, consider some of these suggestions, all taken from my 2014 readings...

Best Book for Your Weekend Warrior or Kid's Coach. Try Mark McClusky's Faster Higher Stronger.

Great overview of elite sports performance from all angles, from genetics to diet to training techniques and equipment. And fascinating, start to finish. Not every performance enhancer is illegal! This one is going to my son's swim coach.

For the environmentalist and climate doomsayer on your list. Who ever heard of a book about the environment that left you feeling hopeful and excited? I loved this one. It made me want to grab a patch of land and start building soil, for Pete's sake, and I can't even keep a houseplant alive. All is not lost, people.

For the armchair survivor and Arctic-o-phile. A tie in this category, since I fall in this bin and read at least 4-5 mountaineering/catastrophe/freezing-to-death books per year.

Shipwreck and exploration and freezing and starving to death! One-stop shopping.

And, for variety, a plane wreck and freezing to death and WWII and a 70-year-old mystery.


For those who love period pics and historical fiction and Jane Austen. Lots and lots in this category, since "we are Legion." Of course, there's my latest traditional Regency, which Austenprose.com and AustenesqueReviews gave five stars:

And there's also this lovely, casual-ish bio of Austen:

and, for Downton Abbey fans, this fun memoir written by a woman who was in service in the early part of the 20th century:

Best Fantasy Book goes to Joe Abercrombie's Half a King, which is actually shelved with Young Adult, I think, but that just meant it didn't have 57,000 sex scenes in 42,600 combinations of partners like Game of Thrones. For plot and adventure and world-building, however, my 13YO son and I gave this five stars.

For the future Jeopardy! champ in the family, I recommend any of Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides. They're aimed at Middle Grade, but my husband even read the one on Presidents, and I read all three!

For those who prefer TV, and, in particular CSI, may I recommend this memoir by a medical examiner. Not a great book to read while you're eating your breakfast cereal, but start-to-finish fascinating and informative. As a bonus, you can garner great tips if you're trying to plan the perfect murder.

For those Catholics who are sick of all the Catholic-bashing that goes on in the world. I enjoyed this lovely biography of Junipero Serra--of whom I knew little than he founded lots of missions which California schoolchildren still have to recreate in class projects.

A good, good man. (Bonus points for the beautiful cover, too.) And speaking of all the good Catholics who serve quietly, while the few, the fringe, the pederast Catholics get all the publicity, several of the good guys show up in this excellent biography:

The author spins a heartfelt, thorough, heartbreaking story of a smart young man with a rough, rough life. Christmas is a great time to donate to schools and programs for youth. We couldn't save Robert Peace, ultimately, but we are helping others. Here are two of my faves, Eastside Academy and Jubilee Reach Center.

And, finally, for those trying to stave off aging and cognitive breakdown by doing crossword puzzles, learning another language, or taking on new challenges, try

A quick, funny read. Alexander is actually fairly hopeless at learning French, which should be encouraging to the rest of us.

There you have it, folks, the 2014 list. If these don't float your boat (or your to-read list still has things like The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society moldering on it, you can also try my 2013 list or even 2012.) Get one title or two at your neighborhood bookstore and everyone wins!

Hope I see you this Saturday, peoples!

The Christmas List: Favorite Reads of 2012

Goodreads has been urging me to vote on the best books of 2012, and I tried. I did. But I quickly ran into an obstacle: I'd only read one of the nominated books. ONE. One piddly book, and that was counting all categories I checked: fiction, nonfiction, and food. I do recommend that solitary book, however: French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon, and here's the UrbanFarmJunkie post where I reviewed it and another where I referenced it again.

Which is not to say I didn't do a lot of reading, January through November of 2012, my lack of Janet Evanovich and Kristen Hannah notwithstanding. In fact, Goodreads has me at 101 books. They just mostly weren't published in 2012. I gave lots of them 4 of 5 stars, mostly because I rarely finish a 2-star read and don't write many 3-star reviews (lest I tick off some author), but I'm forcing myself to pick just one winner in each category. Well--one winner and one runner-up. Make that as many runners-up as I like, if I really couldn't choose.

So if any your loved ones enjoy these categories, give these ones a try! (Mini-plug: do please note that, yes, Amazon has the cheapest books, but will they gift-wrap and ship for free in the U.S., like University Book Store? You heard me: GIFT-WRAP.)

Winner, New or Newish Fiction:

 Tortured folk on a Mississippi Delta farm, post WWII. I loved it, my book club loved it. It came out in 2008, but I'm surprised by how many people never heard of it.

Runners-Up for New/Newish Fiction:

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. An enthralling train wreck. Even better than the very good movie.
The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. Fleshing out of the Lindbergh courtship and marriage, from Anne's perspective.
The Mirrored World by Debra Dean. The life of a St. Petersburg saint. If you love period movies, you'll enjoy this book.

Winner, History:

Wow. Mann covers just about everything under the sun, all around the world. How the discovery of the New World changed the entire world, from the movements of peoples to the rise of African slavery, to population booms and busts and environmental degradation. Amazing. Even better than his excellent book 1491.

Runner-Up, History:
The Bounty by Caroline Alexander. I'm a sucker for British Naval history. Throw in some mutiny and Tahiti and sympathy for the long-maligned Lt Bligh, and I'm sold. I gave both these books 5 of 5 stars.


Winner, Popular Science:

Fascinating and worrisome book of how people have responded with fear and suspicion to vaccines, including the latest version: the fear that early-childhood vaccines have been linked to autism. Mnookin builds a thorough, researched case and investigates how money, motives, and celebrity each play a role in the public's perception.

Runners-Up, Popular Science:
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. Yeah, so he may have resigned his journalism job for making up a Bob Dylan quote in his most recent book, but this one is so much fun! How and why do we make the choices we do?
Maphead by Ken Jennings. A history of maps and the people who love them, all told with Jennings' characteristic good humor.


Winner, Young Adult:

This one's been out a little while, so check with the middle-grader/teen you're considering. The protagonist has a port-wine birthmark but discovers her own beauty. Amazing portrayal of a controlling, verbally abusive father.

Runners-Up, Young Adult:
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman. Dystopian fiction that isn't a series! Imagine that.
Chalice by Robin McKinley. I love fantasy writer McKinley's early stuff (Beauty and The Blue Sword, especially), and this one reminded me of those more than her other, later works.


Winner, Memoir:

What better way to view a portion of someone's life than through the lens of Laura Ingalls Wilder books? I'd been dying to put together a driving trip to see the Wilder sites (with some Maud Hart Lovelace thrown in), and now McClure has done a lot of the legwork for me. Fun, funny, and fascinating. There might also be a fourth F for proFanity--meaning, McClure loves LIW, but she is a woman of today, with its attendant attitudes.

Runners-Up, Memoir:
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (but everyone's probably already read it or formed preconceptions about it)
Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball. More of a family story than a personal memoir. Ball traces the history of slaves owned by his family, their descendants, and their buyers and sellers.


Winner, Adventure/Survival:

Yep. It was also my runner-up in History. Really loved this book.

Runners-Up, Adventure/Survival:
Left for Dead by Pete Nelson. A more recent shipwreck story (WWII). Good stuff.
Hot Time in the Old Town by Edward P. Kohn. A killer heat wave in New York City. Teddy Roosevelt. Corrupt politicians. Lots of death and selfishness.


Winner, Biography:

Page-turning account of the young man who robbed and ran, over and over, in the islands around Seattle. If he'd had access to a school like Eastside Academy, his life would have been very different, and we would not have had this book!

Runner-Up, Biography:
The Women Jefferson Loved by Virginia Scharff. If you're a Jefferson nut, which I'm (as Foghorn Leghorn would say), you'll enjoy this biography told from the angle of his relationships with women, including his mother, Sally Hemings, and daughter Patsy.
 


Winner, Food-Related:

Exactly what the cover says, and then some. Slavery in Florida, for starters. Quite the eye-opener and motivation to grow your own.

Runner-Up, Food-Related:
French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon.


Honorable Mentions, Classics. Why? Because they're free on your e-reader, and I enjoyed them every bit as much as the more recently published books.

A penniless couple tries to make a go of marriage in society.

I'm always a sucker for Thomas Hardy. This one falls in his less-depressing category.

There you have it. Hope you found something for someone or a new read for yourself! I've got lots of good books on my shelf for December, so next year I'll probably have to consider those honorary 2013 books.

If you had some big favorites this year, share them with us in the blog comments! And if you want to swap book reviews as they're coming out, friend me on Goodreads.