Space Station Mir

Hope Jahren's Lab Girl was a surprisingly apt follow-up read to Helen Russell's The Year of Living Danishly.  Not only did I stick with the nonfiction female memoir trend, but the mood stayed Scandinavian (or 'Scandi' as Russell frequently abbreviates in what I'm not sure is magazine-speak, Brit-speak, or her own argot). Jahren describes her Minnesota childhood and immediately evokes the type of winter that Russell observes, except without the cozy sense of  hygge . As Jahren puts it, she traded the icy exterior for a different type of iciness when she entered her home. The writing in Jahren's memoir has a strong sense of place, grounded literally by her interpolated chapters on plant life. It reminds me of the best attributes of scientific writing--the ability to say a lot in a short space and to be precise where it matters. Jahren's goal also exemplifies the truest goal of scientific writing today, to inspire research, by way of grants. As she s...

I've started off my new year's reading very similar to what became my go-to books last year: nonfiction memoirs by female authors. The last book I read last year (November and December reading will be up, er, soon-ish), was Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster, and the first book I read this year was--dum dum dum-- Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster. But seriously. My fiance doesn't even know her name, but he's like "Oh no, are you reading that person who makes you laugh all the time again!?" My second book this year was The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I'm interested (me and the rest of the world) in the Danish concept of hygge ( I first saw it on the Konmari Instagram feed). It fits since winter is my least favorite season, and I'm sick of being somewhat sad for 4-5 months of the year. This winter has been mild, although there's currently an inch of snow and it's well below freezing. Still, the concept of making winter a "co...

Borrowed from Boston Bibliophile . How many books read in 2016? 65 (not including rereads or work reads) How many fiction and non fiction?  42 fiction and 19 nonfiction (2 short story collections, 1 book of poetry) Male/Female author ratio?  48 written by women to 15 written by men. I didn ’ t  read intentionally in this regard this year, but I did notice I was tending more towards books by women.  Favorite book of 2016?   Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. Also, The Yiddish Policemen ’ s Union by Michael Chabon, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Better Than Before and Happiness Project books by Gretchen Rubin, and Man ’ s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Least favorite?  Paper Towns by John Green or A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? I DNF ’ d Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak. I disliked all of the switching back and forth in time. Oldest book...