Space Station Mir

  It's down to the wire, and I still don't know if I will finish another book this year or not 😀. However, I've finished 57 books so far, and so I'm completing my customary annual survey with those in mind. 2021 Reading Stats (As usual, borrowed and modified from the sadly now discontinued blog, Boston Bibliophile.) How many books read? 57 Fiction/nonfiction? 48 fiction (including 2 mixed collections),  9 nonfiction Female/male/nonbinary author ratio? 41 female, 13 male, and 3 collections with mixed genders  Writers of Color/Minority Writers? 10 books by writers of color,  13 books by Jewish authors, which also includes some writers of color and LGBTQ writers Favorite book? The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers--three very different aliens temporarily stranded at a waystation in space, plus their host alien and her child--a thoughtful depiction of alien cultures and a masterpiece of character interaction Longest and shortest books? Longest:  The S...

At last, the semester comes to an end. As I write this, I'm still very much in the thick of it, but by the time this has posted, it (hopefully) will feel long over. I turned my calendar over to December recently, and at the end of this calendar of Zen sayings, it says "You cannot teach people anything; you can only help them find it within themselves." Such an appropriate ending to the year for a teacher (I adjusted the saying here for gender inclusivity). I've also decided to post on Dec. 30, to get ahead of New Year's, but I'll post in January if I finished up any books last minute.   Books I've Read This Month The Latke in the Library & Other Mystery Stories for Chanukah by Libi Astaire Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Sex Wars by Marge Piercy Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life by Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain

Happy Top Ten Tuesday!  These are my favorite books that I read in 2021, i.e. not necessarily published this year, anything that I may have read and enjoyed in this past year! It wasn't one of my best reading years, unfortunately, mostly in that I did not discover any new authors that I particularly love, with the exception of Leigh Bardugo (but I burned through almost all of them, though, yay! there are more). I did however read some exquisite sequels and new books by some of my all-time favorite authors--I was especially excited to get new books from Kristin Cashore and Becky Chambers, but I also read new books by Charlie Jane Anders, Maggie Stiefvater, and more, and a new-to-me book by Marge Piercy.  Best Books I Read in 2021 The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers Sex Wars by Marge Piercy Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore The Secret Commonwealth ...

 Happy Hanukkah! I haven't been reading a lot of books lately, in favor of immersive high-octane TV. First, I watched all the seasons of Supergirl, and now I'm halfway through Arrow. It gets the job done, and watching episodes so close together, I'm doing plenty of narrative and character analysis. It also helps me think about my characters for NaNoWriMo. I've spent most of this NaNoWriMo doing character profiles for the characters from my last complete NaNoWriMo draft in 2019, which I finished in July 2020. Since then, I've been figuring out how to write a second draft, so this work is giving me another angle into writing that, I think (I hope). I'm not trying to reach 50,000 words so much as just get some work done every day, which I've been doing, so I'm proud of myself. Books Read This Month News of the World by Paulette Jiles (book club) The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (other book club)

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This year, Hanukkah starts almost immediately after Thanksgiving, so that's why I'm moving this post up a bit :-)   Books I Want for Hanukkah 1. Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life by Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain 2. Book Lovers Medium Spiral Notebook 3. The Rabbi Who Prayed with Fire by Rachel Sharona Lewis 4. What to Miss When by Leigh Stein 5. The Corgi Chronicles by Laura Madsen

 I started reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within  in September, but somewhere along the way, I started reading as slowly as I could. I even hid it and started a new book ( One Last Stop ) for over a week before reading the last little section, which made me cry with its tiny perfection. I've loved all of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers books, but this one might be my favorite. Five aliens thrust together at a waystation, due to a technical mishap. Chambers makes that premise live up to every bit of its anthropological, xenobiological, and quintessential promise every step (or paw, or mechanical claw) of the way.  p.s. I can't stop staring at that cover, and I love that one of the ships looks Federation Books Read This Month The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston On Division by Goldie Goldbloom (book club read) Eternal Life by Dara Horn (book club read for next month)

Phew. September is always a doozy, especially with going back to teach and work in-person, at least partially, and relearning how to do everything with masks and minimal movement/interaction. Anyway, I'm glad I got some reflective and reading time over the High Holidays.    Books Read This Month The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas (book club read) Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford (other book club read) Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey

Finally, I actually celebrate Women in Translation (WIT) Month (#WITMonth)! Wild Ginger was first published in English, but when I heard Anchee Min describe her process several years ago, she writes in her native Chinese language and her daughter and son-in-law translate to English, so it's kind of an unofficial translation. The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury is also translated, from French, although it's written by a man. It was available as a free Kindle download from Amazon on World Literature Day, and a bunch of members of one of my book club downloaded it and we picked it for this month. I bought Ru as a #WIT read a few years ago, but never got into it until now. It's a slim book filled with lyrical vignettes about the fictional character's life as a child refugee from Vietnam who emigrates to Canada; similar to the author's background. I enjoyed it this time around. It's translated from French. Books Read This Month Wild Ginger by Anchee Min  The Stra...

 First reading experiences are truly special, but I find that for books I really enjoy, re-readings can be equally or more amazing, as I gain more insight into the writing and characters. However, sometimes books are tied to certain moments in time or certain ages or the nature of the book is such that knowing what happens ahead makes it a little bit less interesting. All the books listed below are books I would happily read again, but there was something special about the first time. Happy Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl ! Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield We Are Okay by Nina LaCour The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman Ready Player One by Ernest Cline The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

 This one feels a little ironic since I've rarely left my house in the past year and a half, and in all that time, not to go somewhere and read. In my house, I mostly read on the couch, occasionally in the armchair or in bed. I wouldn't really describe any of those as "favorite" so much as convenient though. There's one place I can think of in my house to read that I do regard as special, and I've written about it below. Otherwise, I've come up with some places from my past or imagined future :-) Favorite Places to Read Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at that Artsy Reader Girl! 1. Outside on my back steps, at night 2. Outside on a picnic table at camp 3. By the pool/lake/ocean 4. By myself in a coffee shop or restaurant 5. Window seat in a back stairwell 6. My future awesome window seat (Left, image from Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/pin/358388082839001478/) 7. At a carrel in the library 8. In an armchair at the library or bookstore 9. In a hotel room 10....

 I absolutely love this topic! I often find myself interested and wishing to learn more about secondary and/or minor characters, especially those I feel were shortchanged; poor Ismene from Antigone  always comes to mind.  Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve More Love 1. Ismene from Antigone 2. Susan from The Chronicles of Narnia 3. Persephone, Maura, and Calla from The Raven Boys-- I would love a prequel (or three) about Blue's mother Maura and her psychic friends. Aunt Jimi and Cousin Orla too. 4. Zoya from the Grishaverse books--we don't know much about her family or how she became involved with the Darkling. But she puts her grievances aside to do what is right when she doesn't need to. 5. Death (pronounced Deeth) and his cat, the librarian with a Graced memory in Bitterblue 6. Teddy and Saf's sisters Tilda and Bren, also in Bitterblue, always felt like they could have been more part of the story, with how they...

I got a fair amount of reading done this month! I finished rereading Call Down the Hawk and reading Mister Impossible ; very glad I did the reread, since there was a lot I had forgotten that was relevant in the next book. Looking forward to the finale! I'm actually surprised by how much nonfiction I read; although, it ended up being pretty even. I also finally read It's a Whole Spiel, which I've wanted to read for a while. Happy Sunday! Books Read This Month Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (reread) Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball (book club read) Anxious People by Fredrik Backman Heartland by Sarah Smarsh It's a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Stories ed. Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman In An Instant by Lee and Bob Woodruff

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! I feel like we've done a lot of similar ones before, but I'll try to include some fresher favorites. Also, what a lap of luxury, to have TEN books on my proverbial desert island :-) 1. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore 2. Middlemarch by George Eliot 3. The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders 4. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 5. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers 6. The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich 7. Devotions by Mary Oliver 8. Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott 9. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson 10. The Ultimate Survival Guide by John Lofty Wiseman

 There are many amazing kinds of books out there, but there is a special magic in a certain kind of book or sometimes a special uninterrupted block of time, which for me often comes during the High Holidays or a vacation or even just a weekend with nothing to do (aka nearly every pandemic weekend), when you can just sit and read and read until you're done. As a result, a lot of these books have very specific place memories for me, like when I was given my copy of The Outsiders in English class, proceeded to read while walking to, at, and from a pep rally, and did not stop reading until I was finished. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour reminds me very specifically of how I used to read in my desk chair in my freshman dorm, with my knees propped up against the desk, because I couldn't sit up in my bed, which was lofted above the desk and dresser, the only way all the furniture could fit in my triple. The most amazing part?  That book wasn't even published when I was a freshman. I...

It's been a busy summer, so I am just getting around to posting my assorted fiction reads for June. Two Jennifer Weiner reads, and I don't regret it! I'm also probably going to read another Fredrik Backman novel in July, and I've already read two more Maggie Stiefvater. There's comfort in finding an author you know you'll like or that you can just trust to immerse you in a world besides your own.  Books I Read This Month 1. The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith (Book club read: finally, a modern work of historical fiction with only ONE plot, time period, and cast of characters! Hallelujah!) 2. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (I am officially a Weiner fan).  3. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (Oof. An emotional whopper, like all his books. Also, like the ensemble point-of-view. I aspire to this.) 4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde 5. Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner (Book club read. Didn't love it as much as Good in Bed but represents an interesting foray...

 I am really not feeling planned reading lists these days, especially since I have 2 planned reads each month anyway, with my book clubs, so I really like to stay open outside of that. That said, the #Blackout reading post from last year came up as a memory on my Fb, so I was thinking I would like to maybe do that again--buy two books by Black authors from Black-owned bookstores. I wouldn't necessarily read the books in June, but at least buy them and then I might end up reading them too. So, here's a list of books that I know I'll read this summer (aka book club reads) and some I'm interested in reading, and we'll see if I feel like it. Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Books On My Summer 2021 TBR Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (probably going to reread before Mister Impossible) Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (book club for June; if I can ever get it out of the library) Big Summer by J...

 There may be nearly a hundred of these formative books in my life, but below I've thought of some that were my childhood doorways into genres, others that led to niche fascinations, some of them continuing, and a few that fostered more recent obsessions, who knows where they will lead! I'm here for the journey and looking forward to the wonderful fresh content being published every day, plus all of the lost and hidden gems still circulating.  1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle This was my first memorable foray into science fiction (even though it's now sometimes shelved as "science fantasy"). My dad had mentioned it being one of his favorites as a kid, I found it at the library, and it was my absolute favorite book from ages 9-11--until I read LOTR. Years later, I realized there were MORE, and I read all of the Time Quartet, plus almost all of the later O'Keefe family books, Austin family books, and a bunch of L'Engle's stand-alones.  2. Th...

It was quite a month for reading, especially comfort reading, as you'll see by my list. I'd been meaning to get to the Grishaverse for a while, but it was on the backburner until it came out on Netflix. After I parceled out the TV show, which I definitely enjoyed, I binged all five of the books the series is/will be based on. The creators of the show made an interesting choice to combine the casts and overlap the plots of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, which are separate in the books.   It will be interesting to see where that goes. The first trilogy is a much more traditional good hero versus evil villain epic fantasy with some Russian-esque words thrown in for flavor (don't get me wrong, this is the epitome of a comfort read for me!), while the Crows duology is grittier, picaresque heroes coming up in the big bad city. Bardugo is great at characterization, especially biting dialogue, and plays well with the implications of the magical Grisha powers in the universe she...

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday! I had to go through my Goodreads list, but I did find at least ten books I've read with complete sentences for titles! It's certainly an intriguing collection. One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross by Harry Kemelman Don't Overthink It by Anne Bogel My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers by Tim Madigan Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

Again, honestly, I read more than I would have predicted with how busy I've been at work and with my doggo's surgery. She is done and a few days into her recovery, she's already standing on her leg a bit! There's a lot of care and work between now and projected full recovery but at least it feels like we're on our way. I've been coping with immersive reading when I can! Books Read This Month Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell (would not recommend) Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline ( a fun ride, v reminiscent of the first) Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders (see below) The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich (book club read, really enjoyed, adding more Erdrich to my list) The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline (potential book club read, historical fiction about an aboriginal girl taken from her family and two convict women transported from England to Australia, specifically Tasmania) Favorite Book This Month I mean, it was always going to be Victories G...

I'm back for Top Ten Tuesday this week! Since I missed last week, I'm going to do a few from last week's list (Places in Books I'd Love to Live) and a few from this week's (Books I'd Gladly Throw into the Ocean). I think the latter has probably been well-documented on this blog, but I'll try to come up with some new ones.  Books I'd Gladly Throw into the Ocean 1. Pamela by Samuel Richardson--Yeah, this might be my most hated book ever. It remains the only book I have literally thrown across a room. There were no oceans handy. The main character marries her employer-rapist. And this is supposed to be a good thing. Yeah. 18th century British values were NOT the best. 2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner--Yeah, I just can't with Faulkner. Not only do I not understand him, but I just have no desire to. 3. Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime by Immanuel Kant--I read this for a literary theory class in college, and it'...

I'm swamped with work, and not much relief in sight till May. Honestly, I'm surprised I got as much reading done as I did. Plus, it looks like one of my doggos is going to need surgery and I'm pretty upset, and between making appointments for her, me, and my husband...phew. Good news is I'm now half-vaccinated, as a teacher, and so is my husband, who also works in education. I get my second vaccine next week!   Books I Read This Month Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (reread) Thoughts I'm so, so grateful that I got to read  Winterkeep,  the latest in the Graceling series that I've been following since 2012. I definitely tried to read slowly and savor as much as I could! I know I'll read it again too. I love Kristin Cashore so much and will read anything she writes for the rest of my life.  Reading  Winterkeep was  even more of a treat than I dared to dream....

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! This week's topic is a Spring Cleaning freebie, so I decided to go with cleaning-themed books I'm either interested in or have enjoyed. I'm not going to do any spring cleaning anytime soon since this is a busy time of year for me (as a teacher, I'm more likely to attempt big cleaning projects in January or June), but it's sometimes fun to read about it. Also to watch on Netflix re: Kondo and The Home Edit. Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore by Patric Richardson Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness by Suellen Hoy The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (still sparks joy!) The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Sh...

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl ! Honestly, it's easier for me to think of characters whose jobs I don't wish I had. I don't want to be a defense lawyer. I don't want to travel through Mordor to throw the Ring into Mount Doom. I might want to be a librarian or a bookseller (assuming I could make a living), a writer or what I already am, a teacher. I want more of the jobs from cozy, safe types of books--although I threw a few nonfiction in too.  1. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman Job: Bookseller 2. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan Job: Owner of a book van/traveling bookshop 3. Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein Job: Matchmaker I wouldn't have picked this before I read the book, but the way she spends most of her time just looking at online profiles and then setting people up kind of sounded fun. 4. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Job: Anything on a spaceship. I (almost) don't care! I could ...

A lot of speculative fiction this month, and I needed it. Also, rereading two of my favorite fantasy novels, Graceling and Bitterblue , in preparation for the next in the series, Winterkeep , which I am eagerly awaiting---5 of 34 on the library waitlist! It was my first reread of Graceling since I first read it in 2012 (!) but I own Bitterblue and have read it many times. I'm glad she's going to be a character in Winterkeep . A Traveler in Time is a book I picked up at a Chicago library sale, and have had for a while, but I finally read it. It's such a cozy story about time travel into the 1600s, but it was written pre-1930s, so for me, it's like time-traveling twice. The two Kevin Emerson books are the second and third in the middle-grade science fiction Dark Star trilogy which offers alternatively irreverent and profound interpretations of the space/time continuum, plus a meditation on personal and collective responsibility.   Books Read This Month A Traveler in Ti...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! I know I've done similar topics before, so while David Lebovitz or Jen Lancaster can always get me to laugh, I'm focusing on books I've read in the past couple of years. Happy reading! A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher Black Widow by Leslie Gray Streeter My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List ed. Alana Newhouse Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce Born a Crime by Trevor Noah To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is a Valentine's Day freebie, so I thought I'd have a little fun and share with you some of the most un romantic stories I've ever read. Definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND if you're trying to impress your valentine. Some of them should be obvious--and some of them should be obvious. And I have a little more to say on the last one, which is one of my favorite books of all time, and in some ways one of the most romantic books of all time, but also the key to explaining why some books are not as romantic as some may think. Keep reading if you're curious: Top Ten Books You Shouldn't Read for Valentine's Day Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Pamela by Samuel Richardson My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 1984 by George Orwell Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Carey Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Persuasion by Jane Austen Jane Austen on Why Roma...

I read a lot more this month than I have in a while. Part of it is being off work for most of the month. Part of it is distracting myself from the winter, particularly the winter of this pandemic. The rates, the restriction, the closing in, the cold. I felt better after the 20th was over. I feel confident that I will get the vaccine sometime this year. But I still just want to escape. I'm lucky. I have a lovely cozy place to huddle up with my beloved spouse and dogs. I'm safe. I have everything I need. I just have to find it.   Books Read This Month The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan Paper Brigade 2020-21 One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross by Harry Kemelman Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson Favorite Book This Month 1. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman It helps to start off the m...

 I encountered some incredible new authors in 2020, a few of them in interesting ways! We read Leslie Gray Streeter's memoir in our book club because one of our members knows her sister and brother-in-law, and we even got to meet her over Zoom. I heard of Gretchen McCulloch's book because a former colleague of mine reviewed it on LinkedIn. I saw someone talking about Junauda Petrus' book on Twitter, commented about how awesome I thought it was, and my husband bought it for me for my birthday! I won Amy Meyerson's second book, The Imperfects , through an Instagram contest, and it came with the sweetest note from her. Overall, I love being open to new bookish experiences and authors, whether it be debuts, new-to-me books, books in translation, or classics. Check out my list--I recommend them all! Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020 Charlotte Lucas T. Kingfisher Gretchen McCulloch Leslie Gray Streeter Amy Meyerson ...

 I debated whether or not even to do this post. Unlike most years, I don't feel like setting goals. However, I decided to take a look back at last year, thinking I would probably laugh, but it actually turns out I set some thoughtful and flexible goals that I did mostly accomplish. So, I will do similarly this year: I'll set goals that I can probably accomplish no matter where this year takes me, and a lot is up in the air for me personally as well as my country politically, and whether I accomplish them or not, that's okay. So, let's go over last year's Bookish and Non-Bookish Goals: 2020-Bookish Goals 1. Read at least 60 books-I read exactly 60 books! 2. Reread old favorites and books I have more to learn from-Yes.  Towards the end of 2019/beginning of 2020, I reread Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and enjoyed it so much. In 2020, I did a couple more rereads like Jen Sincero's You Are a Badass and Mary Oliver's Blue Horses , and I began 202...

For my 2020 Goodreads goal, I had set 60 books. A the beginning of the year, it didn't seem like much, since I read over 80 last year and over 70 the year before. But this year was a different year, when I went through bursts of reading and bursts of just bingeing Netflix, so I had accepted that I wouldn't meet that goal. However, on Dec 26, I realized that I had read 55 books for the year...and my friends on social media egged me on for a 5 books in 5 days challenge, which I am happy to say I completed. I read more books in December than any other month this year, I think, and I did finish 60 books in 2020, finishing up with two book club reads for January, two new books I got for Hanukkah, and a collection of children's books.    I bought the Rebecca  collection a few years ago. I loved American Girl books growing up, and I read all of them. The  Rebecca books, the first (and only, I think) Jewish American Girl, came out after I was an adult, but I wanted to read t...

 2020 Reading Stats As usual, borrowed and modified from the sadly now discontinued Boston Bibliophile. How many books read in 2020? 60, which I hit just in time. Last year, I read 89, and the year before 73, both record-breakers for me, and...I am so freaking proud of myself for what I've been able to accomplish this year.  How many fiction and nonfiction? 36 fiction, 24 nonfiction Female/male/nonbinary author ratio? 50 female, 10 male, including one collection of short stories with female, male, and nonbinary authors Writers of Color/Minority Writers? 14 books by writers of color,  9 books by Jewish authors, at least three by LGBTQ writers, and more including some of the writers in the short story collection Favorite book of 2020? Middlemarch. I spent a long time reading and savoring it, especially in the uncertain days right after we were all told to go home and stay there.  Longest and shortest books? Longest:  Middlemarch by George Eliot, at 904 pages. Shor...