My reading list reflects gifts I’ve been given, places I travel to, things I want to learn, book reviews I’ve read, and a few books I’ve wanted to read again. I started off the year with State of Terror, which put me into a state of terror because its author Hilary Clinton has the inside scoop on how the government operates. If Louise Penny had written the book on her own, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so affected. This book could be true!
My favorite books of the year are Lessons in Chemistry (fiction) and The Code Breaker (nonfiction). Lessons in Chemistry, a gift from my niece Koren, is a witty novel about a woman scientist and her struggle to be a scientist in the male-dominated science world of the 1960’s. It is quite amusing but also sobering to think about the challenges faced by women in science at that time. The Code Breaker is about Jennifer Doudna, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Women have made progress since the era of Lesson in Chemistry! Walter Isaacson does a marvelous job telling her story and weaving in the many people who worked with her to develop gene editing. It is fascinating and a must-read for anyone living in the 21st century.
All the years I’ve been visiting the Calistoga area, I never investigated Robert Lewis Stevenson. So I decided to read his account of him living there with his new wife Fanny. After finishing Silverado Squatters, I visited the RLS museum in Calistoga and found it mesmerizing.
My trip to Ireland got me thinking about tackling James Joyce’s Ulysses, but it has gotten such a bad rap for being incomprehensible (and I’ve not found anyone who has read it) that I decided instead to read Dubliners. Joyce paints a vivid portrait of life in the city. I enjoyed the book a great deal. To complement my foray into Irish literature I read The Celtic Twilight by William Butler Yeats and the modern novel The Sea by John Banville.
While perusing books in Elliott Bay Bookstore during a visit to Seattle, I came upon a staff pick All Systems Red by Martha Wells, which is part of an extended sci-fi series called the Murderbot Diaries. I followed the adventures of Murderbot over a few books. That got me to thinking about old books that I never read, so I picked up Flower for Algernon, Daniel Keyes, which is quite good. How did I miss that when I was younger?
Kevin Major is a Canadian author, from Newfoundland, so I read his three mysteries set in the St. John's area. Kevin was on the expedition staff of an Adventure Cruise I took around Newfoundland. Margaret Atwood was on the expedition staff of the Atlantic Canada cruise I took just before the Newfoundland cruise, so I read her book of poetry, Dearly, after meeting her onboard and getting the book signed. It's a wonderful book!
I read The Stowaway, Wild Sea, and Terra Incognita, all non-fiction, in preparation for my trip to Antarctica. Sara Wheeler's writing is marvelous. The Piano Tuner is a re-read for me, but selected by a book club I joined recently. I read it almost 20 year ago when it first came out and enjoyed it even more the second time around.
State of Terror, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles
Oregon Trail Stories: The Accounts of Life in a Covered Wagon, various
Silverado Squatters, Robert Lewis Stevenson
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
Transient Desires, Donna Leon
Prelude to Foundation, Issac Asimov
Coraline, Neil Gaiman
Learning to See Creatively, Bryan Peterson
Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson
The Searcher, Tana French
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
Treasure Island, Robert Lewis Stevenson
Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Slocum
Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen
The Sea, John Banville
New People, Danzy Senna
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
Overboard, Sara Paretsky
Dubliners, James Joyce
One for the Rock, Kevin Major
Two for the Tablelands, Kevin Major
Three for Trinity, Kevin Major
Bret Farrar, Josephine Tey
On a Quiet Street, Seraphina Nova Gladd
Dearly, Margaret Atwood
The Heron’s Cry, Anne Cleeve
Bone Key, Les Standiford
The Celtic Twilight, William Butler Yeats
Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit, Tom Osborne
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
All Systems Red, Martha Wells
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells
Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
The Round House, Louise Erdrich
The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson
The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica, Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean, Joy McCann
To Kill a Troubadour, Martin Walker
Champagne: The Farewell, Janet Hubbard
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, Sara Wheeler