Year End Summary

Well, for the first time in many years, I did not reach my goal of reading 52 books in a year - I only finished 51. Why? Partly that I spent time re-reading books I had already read, such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I re-read after seeing the movie. And I read the Game of Thrones series again after the HBO miniseries and before the fifth book came out this summer. But I also confess that I have simply less time to read now. With a new exercise program that gets me up at 5:30 am each day, I am fading into sleepiness earlier in the evenings and it just means I don't have as much time to read.

I did not write many reviews this year for the same reason.

That being said, what did I read this year that I liked? I did read Anne of Green Gables, a classic I had somehow missed and a book recommended to me by one of my pen pals. I also read the follow-up, Anne of Avonlea. They were fine, and I can see that if I had read these in my younger years, they probably would have been some of my favorites. Not so much now that I am 50+.

Late in the year I discovered another fantasy series that I liked, by NK Jemisin, The Hundred Kingdoms series. One selling point is that the series includes people of color as major characters. It is unfortunate that this is unusual.

I also read an interesting literary novel, Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, which is about an African-American man with two wives and two daughters. The first half of the book is from the point of view of one daughter, the second half from the other one. An interesting novel.

I also read the second book in the YA series, Matched, called Crossed. Not as good as the first one, which set up the restrictive society. The second novel concerned the heroine's escape from that society into the wilderness and was not nearly as unique or believable.

Not a bad year, all in all, but certainly there was very little that I read that I will remember, or want to read again.