Quarantine Reading 2020 Wrapup: Part 1

December 31st of last year, Sawyer made the comment "Wow, just read 50 more books and you'll have read a book a day!"

Could I? Should I? Fifty books isn't that many, I can read that many more over the course of a whole year. Usually goals don't stick for me, so I was like sure, why not, I'll set myself a challenge to read 365 books this year. No, 366 - it's a leap year.

Thanks to quarantining for the pandemic, a lot of driving and double-speed audiobook time, and a whole mess of graphic novels thrown in, I did it. I never want to do it again. Here's my list and some notes. I've bolded the ones I think you should read too (hint: it's almost all of them - hooray for reading!) and highlighted the ones I extra extra loved.

The rules: Audiobooks count. Single issues of graphic novels count, but only if I couldn't find a collected volume. Children's picture books would count, but I didn't read any. The backs of shampoo bottles do not count, but Dr. Bronner's soap bottles could be considered in a pinch. Tea required.

The List Part A: Books 1-50

1. Falling in love with hominids by Nalo Hopkinson – Absolutely the read I needed to start out the year. Imaginative short sci-fi stories, all written with this underlying love for the human race.
   
   
2. Heartsick by Chelsea Cain – Immediate downturn to a totally forgettable thriller
   
   
3. The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr – Hilarious memoir about Karr's dysfunctional childhood. Fun fact - when I searched the title, Google suggested I look at more "woman books"
   
   
4. Sheets by Brenna Thummler – Graphic novel about a ghost who befriends a girl who works at a laundromat. Quiet and touching.
   
   
5. American Messiahs: False prophetsof a damned nation by Adam Morris – Ignore the ridiculous title, this is a great approach to the long history underlying today's fake news.
   
   
6. Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal - YA horror novel set in Puerto Rico. Great #ownvoices read, really intense for YA but still has a YA feel.
   
   
7. Toehold by Stephen H Foreman - Ehh. I did enjoy reading this fiction story about life in Alaska, but it tries to be a book of caricatures and character sketches and it just doesn't quite hit the right mark for me.
   
   
8. Will my cat eat my eyeballs? Big questions from tiny mortals about death by Caitlin Doughty – They probably won’t start with the eyeballs, if that helps any.
   
   
9. Inherit the bones by Emily Littlejohn - This reads like a debut mystery novel, so totally fine if mysteries are your jam, but skippable. Warning: one of the main characters is literally a circus clown.
   
   
10. The Last by Hanna Jameson - Read January 9th. Oh this post-apocalyptic story of folks who are all stuck in a quarantine together is so fascinating and nothing at all like real life!
    
    
11. The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll - Good ol' dysfunctional childhood memoir, this time set in Ireland.
    
    
12. Do not become alarmed by Maile Meloy - This was way darker and sadder than I expected. Two kids go missing on an island during a stopover on a cruise. Part adventure story as they find their way back, part broken family story.
    
    
13. Beneath the surface by Lynn H Blackburn - Mehhhh. It's a serial killer murder mystery, with the cop protagonist working on a forensics dive team! But actually it's a Christian romantic suspense novel. When the main characters take prayer breaks....
    
    
14. An elderly lady is up to no good by Helene Tursten (trans. Marlaine Delargy) - OK this was really fun. It's a teensy little book, about a very murderous old lady. Easy parallel with Arsenic and Old Lace, but
    
    
15. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Depressed young woman gets food poisoning from room temperature crab and mayonnaise. OK not really. Somehow I had never read this before, and I loved it much more than I thought I would.
    
    
16. Deviant: The Shocking True Storyof Ed Gein, the Original Psycho by Harold Schechter - If you're into true crime you're probably familiar with Harold Schechter. Moderately well-researched true crime stories, but nothing special. Ed Gein is gross.
    
    
17. I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton - My favorite brain candy series.
    
    
18. Scan Artist: How Evelyn Wood Convinced the World that Speed-Reading Worked by Marcia Biederman - OK now this one was super interesting. The basics are in the title, but it was extra fascinating to read about how our educational practices came to be and (spoiler alert) how little evidence lies behind most of them.
    
    
19. Plight of the living dead: what real-life zombies reveal about our world--and ourselves by Matt Simon - Not as interesting as the title suggests, but totally worth reading.
    
    
20. Redlands #2 by Jordie Bellaire & Vanesa R Del Rey - Read Redlands #1 first, obvs. Witchy horror graphic novel.
    
    
21. Mooncop by Tom Gauld - 20-23 are from an afternoon of "I'm behind on my reading and ooh look at all these graphic novels! Mooncop is....existential. Funny in a dreary way. I liked it.
    
    
22. Clue by Paul Allor and Nelson Daniel - Totally worthwhile graphic novel adaptation of the concept of Clue! But Tim Curry it ain't - it's hard to read a version that plays it straight when you could be watching the movie.
    
    
23. Bingo love by Tee Franklin, Jenn St. Onge and Joy San - Aww. Graphic novel about two women realizing late in life that they are lesbians. Definitely written for representation and clearly self-published, but I can't not love it.
    
    
24. The organized mind: thinking straight in the age of information overload by Daniel Levitin - Try to do only one thing at a time. Multi-tasking doesn't work. If you get distracted with a list of things to do, try quickly writing down the distracting thought so you can go back to focusing on the task at hand. There, you've gotten the point of this book. That said! If you like pop psych, you'll like this one.
    
    
25. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor - OMG THIS BOOK!! Okorafor wrote it as a rebuttal to the film District 9, and damn did she do a good job!
    
    
26. Skim by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki - Mariko Tamaki is one of my favorite queer authors, but her best works are in partnership with Jillian Tamaki. Skim is such a great coming of age story. It's not comfortable or happy, but it's so real.
    
    
27. Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol - Adorable! Kind of a graphic memoir, kind of not. If you've been to summer camp or tried to make friends as a kid, this will resonate.
    
    
28. Women Destroy Science Fiction! by Nightmare Magazine Trade Paperback - Excellent audiobook anthology. The problem with these is that now I have a list of 20-some authors who I want to seek out.
    
    
29. The prince and the dressmaker by Jen Wang - TRANS books for kids, trans books for KIDS!
    
    
30. Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell - Old school police procedurals. Pretty good if you read it as science fiction, since ACAB.
    
    
31. The Arctic Grail: The Quest forthe Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909 by Pierre Berton - OK I am leaving this bold, but you can ignore that since it's evidence of my obsession with disastrous polar expeditions.
    
    
32. The last one by Alexandra Oliva - Not to be confused with The Last (see #10). I am very conflicted about this one. It's about a person who is on a reality TV survival show, and is in the woods when the apocalypse happens. It's both funnier and more tragic than it should be, and I don't mean that in a good way. But I still really liked it. Ugh, someone read this so I can talk with you about it!
    
    
33. Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder and Jock - It's Batman! If you like Batman, you'll like this.
    
    
34. Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks - A memoir about being a penpal. I feel I would have enjoyed this more if I had read other things Brooks had written beforehand.
    
    
35. Rabid by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy - Rabies is creepy!
    
    
36. Who says you're dead? Medical & ethical dilemmas for the curious & concerned by Jacob M Appel - Yeah, who does say you're dead? Collection of ethical dilemmas with information about how they're normally handled. The responses are very short so I definitely had some moments of "uhh that doesn't seem right" but the book just skips by.
    
    
37. The cost of privilege : taking on the system of white supremacy and racism by Chip Smith - Definitely a recommended read, but there are so many books on this topic, it's not the best written, and it's rather dated now.
    
    
38. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley - It's a "kids" book but these short stories are genuinely unsettling. Definitely the kind of book a young kid would get hold of and be scarred for life.
    
    
39. The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson - I liked it! Kind of Stand by Me vibes.
    
    
40. The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths are Solving America’s Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber - Not as interesting as I expected, and kind of rambly. But if you're into true crime and cold crimes, I bet you won't be able to resist it anyway :)
    
    
41. Chasing the dead by Tim Weaver - I just remember this being stupidly over the top.
    
    
42. Scott's Last Expedition by Robert Falcon Scott - Well Scotty, that trip did not go well for you. Maybe try saving your life instead of hauling a bunch of rocks around? Highly recommended.
    
    
43. Outside the Box: Interviews With Contemporary Cartoonists by Hillary L Chute - Introduced me to a couple artists I probably should have already been familiar with! Would have been more enjoyable if I'd read more of their work before, because otherwise they're just random people talking.
    
    
44. Get well soon by Jennifer Wright - OK this was a little stressful to read this year, but as far as pandemic books go, it's great! Hilarious while also being respectful of the tragedies.
    
    
45. She's not there: a life in two genders by Jennifer Finney - Trans memoirs! Really excellent.
    
    
46. Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor - Basicall a printed TED Talk, but so good. All about finding joy and creativity despite life's limitations.
    
    
47. The white darkness by David Grann - Moar polar exploration books! Short little biography, good audiobook author.
    
    
48. The Canon: A whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science by Natalie Angier - I loved this one! It's all about the basics of science, but it's engaging and fun and full of joy.
    
    
49. The Lost Man by Jane Harper - If you liked The Dry, you will really like this one. Australian outback murder mystery. Bring water.
    
    
50. Cold by Bill Streever - This book makes me think of my mom, who shudders anytime someone mentions the word ice. She would not do well with this one.
    

Are you somehow still with me? Read Part II here.