jennyifer24 reads in 2021

Hi, I'm Jenny. I'm a second-grade teacher in Michigan. I read a little bit of everything, but tend toward ya, mysteries, and historical fiction, with more and more fantasy creeping in. I read almost everything from the library, and I find lots of books just by browsing the shelves. Outside of reading, I'm a big sports fan. I love my Michigan State Spartans, and I'm interested in watching any kind of sport.

I taught for 7 years in Virginia, but other than that I've always lived in Michigan. I don't count picture books in my reading totals, but they do pop up in my thread from time to time.

From last year:
"My main goal for this thread for 2020 is to keep up with it, even in the fall when life gets extra busy."

So that was a big fail. Hopefully I'll do better this year! I did have my best year probably ever based on number of books read, with 89.

Here's to a great 2021!

2020
Books read: 89
Pages read: 29,853
Average publishing year: 2012
Median publishing year: 2017
Mode for publishing year: 2019 (13 books)

2019 for comparison:
Books read: 75
Pages read: 30,346
Average publishing year:2003
Median publishing year: 2015
Mode for publishing year: 2018 (11 books)

Jan-Mar

January
1. Names for the Sea (2012)
2. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany (2020)
3. The Book of Hygge (2016)

February
4. House of Earth and Blood (2020)
5. The Last Mrs. Summers

March
6. The Girl in the Steel Corset
7. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
8. The Girl with the Iron Touch
9. The Girl with the Windup Heart

Apr-June

April
10. Learning to Pray
11. To All the Boys I've Loved Before
12. P.S. I Still Love You
13. The Switch
14. The Things We Cannot Say
15. Always and Forever, Lara Jean

May
16. The Girl Who Played With Fire
17. The Court of Thorns and Roses
18. The Life List

June
19. The Court of Mist and Fury
20. The Martian
21. The Right Sort of Man
22. You Deserve Each Other
23. Fast Girls
24. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (2021)
25. Doomsday Book (1992)

Jul-Sept

July
26. A Royal Affair (2020)
27. My Badass Book of Saints (2015)
28. Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century (2020)
29. A Rogue's Company (2021)
30. Live in Love (2020)
31. Malibu Rising (2021)
32. The Starless Sea (2019)

Oct-Dec

Series Update
Book listed is first unread in the series
This is more for longer series, rather than 2-3 book series.

Bed And Breakfast Mysteries- Dune to Death
https://www.librarything.com/series/Bed-And-Breakfast+Mysteries

A Bibliophile Mystery- caught up!
https://www.librarything.com/nseries/13330/A-Bibliophile-Mystery

Bryant and May- The Water Room
https://www.librarything.com/series/Bryant+and+May

Candy-Coated Mysteries- caught up!
https://www.librarything.com/series/Candy-Coated+Mysteries

Cupcake Bakery Mystery- caught up!
https://www.librarything.com/series/A+Cupcake+Bakery+Mystery

Drew Farthering- Murder at the Mikado
https://www.librarything.com/series/Drew+Farthering

Eight Cousins- Rose in Bloom
https://www.librarything.com/series/Eight+Cousins

Elizabeth Parker- Murder Most Austen
https://www.librarything.com/series/Elizabeth+Parker

Father Koesler- Masquerade?
https://www.librarything.com/series/Father+Koesler

Harry Hole- The Devil's Star
http://www.librarything.com/series/Harry+Hole

Her Royal Spyness- The Last Mrs. Summers
https://www.librarything.com/series/Her+Royal+Spyness

Inspector Devlin- The Rising
https://www.librarything.com/series/Inspector+Devlin+%5BMcGilloway%5D

Knightley and Son- Knightley and Son K-9
https://www.librarything.com/work/15476174

Library Lovers Mystery- caught up!
https://www.librarything.com/series/A+Library+Lover%27s+Mystery

MacDonald Family Trilogy- caught up!
https://www.librarything.com/series/The+MacDonald+Family+Trilogy

Maggie Hope- The Prisoner in the Castle
https://www.librarything.com/series/Maggie+Hope

Magical Bakery Mystery- Spirits and Sourdough ?
https://www.librarything.com/nseries/28863/A-Magical-Bakery-Mystery

Maisie Dobbs- Among the Mad
http://www.librarything.com/series/Maisie+Dobbs

Meg Langslow (blacksmith)- Die Like an Eagle
http://www.librarything.com/series/Meg+Langslow

Peter Grant- Whispers Under Ground
https://www.librarything.com/series/Peter+Grant

Poppy Markham: Culinary Cop- Out of the Frying Pan
https://www.librarything.com/series/Poppy+Markham%3A+Culinary+Cop

The Prairie Trilogy- My Antonia
https://www.librarything.com/series/The+Prairie+Trilogy

Will Anderson and Elizabeth Hume- Detroit Breakdown
https://www.librarything.com/series/Will+Anderson+and+Elizabeth+Hume

The Woodcutters- Hero
https://www.librarything.com/series/The+Woodcutters

I'd also like to hunt down the sequels to In Lane Three, Alex Archer. I read it years ago and recently discovered sequels, although I haven't gotten any of them into my hands to read!

4. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
6. Learning to Pray
7. The Martian
8. Names for the Sea
9. House of Earth and Blood
10. Dorothy Day Dissenting Voice of the American Century
12. The Things We Cannot Say
17. You Deserve Each Other
19. Doomsday Book
21. The Book of Hygge
22. The Switch
24. Always and Forever, Lara Jean
25. The Court of Thorns and Roses

Ongoing challenges- I have threads for Dewey, and reading around the world (maybe more?) that don't get a lot of love. I keep saying I will hopefully keep up with them better the next year, then don't. We'll see what happens ;-)

50 state challenge

reading globally challenge

Dewey challenge

Apparently this classics challenge is becoming a multi-year affair, lol. (also copied from last year) And because another challenge never hurt anyone, here's a classics challenge borrowed from DeborahJade.

1. A 19th century classic - Hard Times (r. 2019)
2. A 20th century classic (pre-1968)- The Screwtape Letters (r. 2018)
3. A classic by a woman author -
4. A classic in translation - Les Miserables (r. 2018)
5. A children's classic - A Wrinkle in Time (r. 2018)
6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction -
7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction -
8. A classic with a single-word title -
9. A classic with a color in the title- The Picture of Dorian Gray (r. 2019)
10. A classic by an author that's new to you -
11. A classic that scares you- The Divine Comedy (r. 2018)
12. Re-read a favorite classic - The Long Winter (r. 2019)

Clearly I'm not that great at challenges, but I'm also going to see how I do on the PopSugar 2019 challenge. I usually add books I read to it, instead of planning my reading around it. Last year I didn't post it in here, but kept track on my own. Maybe I'll add it in to this thread later for more motivation.

I also used to think that I didn't read a lot of new books, but it seems like I read more new books than older books. So, I'm going to try to expand by reading at least one book from every decade of the 20th century. I'm starting my decades in the years ending in 0 :-)

1900-1909
1910-1919 Song of the Lark
1920-1929
1930-1939
1940-1949 The Seven Storey Mountain
1950-1959
1960-1969 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1999 Outlander

I think I need one more...

Welcome back Jenny.

Welcome back!

>11 PaulCranswick: >12 drneutron: Thanks! I'm happy to be starting a new year of reads!

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

Best wishes for a better 2021!

>15 DianaNL: Thanks! Same to you!

Happy reading in 2021, Jenny!

And keep up with my friends here, Jenny. Have a great 2021.

>17 FAMeulstee: Thanks! Happy new year of reading to you!
>18 PaulCranswick: Happy new year!! Hopefully you have a great one.

I'm in the market for a new e-reader...any suggestions?

I have a Nook HD+ that's probably 9 years old, and was outdated but worked for reading library books. The overdrive app stopped working last night and I uninstalled it but now there isn't a compatible version I can use.

I basically just need an ereader. I don't really buy ebooks- I only really need to use the overdrive/Libby app. My Nook does audio books which is nice but not a must. I am hoping to avoid Kindle. I try to avoid Amazon in general, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Thanks for any ideas!

This may be more than you need, but mrsdrneutron has an iPad mini that she loves. Really good for both audio and e-books, plus all the other functionality of an iPad. It’s small enough to fit in most of her purses too.

Happy to see you back, Jenny!

I'm not sure they're available in the US but the big Canadian bookstore chain Indigo (which I know opened a location or two in the US a year or two ago) has Kobo readers that might just fit your bill.

Happy New Year, Jenny.

>21 drneutron: Thanks for the suggestion! I have an iPad for school. We use apple and it's slowly winning me over! It might be more than I need but I hadn't even thought of it.

>22 MickyFine: I hadn't heard of them until a couple days ago when I started looking. They're definitely on my list now. Thanks!

>23 BLBera: Same to you! Happy reading!

Ugh, lost my library card number when the overdrive app stopped working. I have a library card for the town my school district is based in, along with my own library. And of course, I'm getting notifications that holds are becoming available on that account. Oops!

I'm making progress on A Promised Land and I need to start Sense and Sensibility this week.

Hope you're able to track down your card number. I'm the weirdo that has not only my library card numbers memorized (for both my work and home library systems) but my husband's numbers memorized too.

> I got it on Monday thankfully! I do have my home library card memorized, but I usually just use this one on my tablet so it's always logged in (until the other day lol).

I definitely wrote it down this time though lol.

Huzzah!

Happy New Year and happy reading this year! How has virtual teaching been going?

>28 MickyFine: The holds are saved, huzzah! :-)

>29 aktakukac: Thanks! It's going alright. We're still completely virtual. We have metrics to shoot for to get kids back in the buildings, but I'm not sure how long that will take.

We have a lot of good routines in place now, and I've been able to spend more time trying to work in some of the fun things we usually do. We've placed a lot of value on flexibility and problem-solving and kids are usually pretty good at both. I also have a student teacher which is helpful in so many ways but one is working with kids who do need some extra help. So one of us teaches and the other has a breakout room open in zoom where they can chat with each other and get extra help.

We even started mock Caldecott this week :-)

I read Hard Times & The Screwtape Letters, before I started this profile. I love those books. Screwtape was full of crisis and learning and grand sad, and Hard Times, was fun, fun fun fun.

Of course, I don’t get out much, and I associate it with that Paramore music video, but I think that Hard Times was fun.

Terrible title though he shoulda called it THE GRADGRIND PHILOSOPHY

>31 goosecap: I liked Hard Times way more than I expected to. I'm not sure I'd go as far as four funs though :-)

I went with a Samsung Galaxy tablet instead of a dedicated ereader. It's a 2019 and was marked down a lot. So far it's been doing its job.

Usually the beginning of the year I pick up on reading but it's been going slow so far. Maybe because I spent a lot of time watching the news this week. Maybe because online school does take more prep time. I'm also on season 7 (I think) of Heartland and my sister bought me a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. All that to say I need to choose to read and I'm not.

Currently reading Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss. I'm about halfway through. I should be getting back to A Promised Land soon too.

1. Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

I finally read a book! After a very slow reading start to the year, I finished Names for the Sea. It's about a woman's year living in Iceland with her family. I was interested especially after my sister and I visited Iceland in 2019. Her book included a variety of interesting topics- she was there during the economic crisis and the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. She talked with people who lived on Heimaey in the Westman Islands when the 1973 eruption happened. She meets with a lot of interesting people which was a great part of the book. The book is definitely about her experience and reaction to living in a new and different place, but the land and experiences are so different that it was interesting to read how someone new would adapt.

She did complain about being cold a lot. I kept looking up the temperature conversions and then scoffing at her complaints (being from a cold place myself), but then I remembered that when my sister and I rented a car, they kept reminding us to hold on to the door when we opened it. Even though we got the high-end rental insurance, it didn't cover damage to the doors if the wind caught them when they were opened. So I guess it's kind of windy there :-)

2. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

A pair of cousins set off for Italy with their great-aunt, determined to break the "second-daughter curse" that plagues their family. The story jumps between past and present with plenty of twists along the way.

From Iceland to Italy, I read this book next because it's the January pick for my co-worker book club. It's written by a local author, and it's the first of her books I've read. Although, I did come across The Life List in the little free library by my house, and that sounds pretty interesting.

I liked it. As a single woman there were parts I disagreed with or questioned, but overall a good read.

Where should I head next in my vicarious book travels? :-)

Ireland or India? Continuing with the "I" country names?! Or Idaho... :)

>36 aktakukac: Lol, I was thinking that too! I notice you left Indiana off the list ;-)

>37 jennyifer24: To be fair, I also skipped Illinois and Iowa :)

>33 jennyifer24: Since I work for Samsung, I am happy with your choice, albeit I work for the construction division - Samsung Electronics are our biggest shareholder. I was given a Samsung tablet by the company in recognition of meeting my yearly KPIs but I cannot comment too much on it as my son confiscated it as soon as I brought it home.

>39 PaulCranswick: haha, well if you haven't seen it since that must be a good sign! Mine's been good so far!

3. The Book of Hygge by Louisa Thomsen Brits
January 31
Well, instead of another I country, I went to Denmark. This book reads like its topic. It was very calming and soothing. I'm not sure if I learned a lot, but it was as good reminder to live in the present, find contentment and joy in where you are, appreciate the simple, real things.

4. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah Maas
February 4
This book is the opposite of The Book of Hygge lol. I love her books. There are some gimme moments that could have been plotted out better, like when Maas uses the trope of Hunt betraying Bryce, but she gets over it basically instantly. I'm not sure they ever even talk about it. Although after all the stuff that follows, maybe there's no need! , but man, can she write characters and tell a story. This book was full of twists and you can see some of what's coming in the next books (I didn't realize this is a new series until I went to reserve the next book online) Heads up- this book has a lot of language and graphic violence.

Working on Written in My Own Heart's Blood and Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century which are both chunksters. Might not finish a book until March...

Also, gearing up to reopen the school building! We find out tomorrow if March 1 is the day; otherwise it's a least the next week. Last time I taught kids in the building was Friday the 13th of March, 2020. Can't believe we've passed the 11 month mark!

Well, apparently it's been 4 months since I last stopped by LT. And what a 4 months it was! Quick recap-
March 1- We started back in the school building. Only 5 of my kiddos were in person and the rest stayed online. In-person kids came 2 days a week. We taught a lot of in-person/virtual kids at the same time.

April 4 (after spring break)- Parents were able to choose again before spring break if they wanted their child to come in-person or stay online the rest of the year. The original plan was the 2 day a week we did in March, and then up that to 4 when the numbers were better. About a week and a half before spring break, the state legislature passed a bill saying in-person had to be at least 20 hours per week. So the plan was adjusted (basically in less than a week), and on April 4 I started teaching 14 kids in-person and 12 online. We taught virtual kiddos live on zoom from 9-10:15 and from 3:15-4:00. In-person kids came from 10:15-3:15. When they weren't live with me or in-person, all kids had other work to do online.

The district had tossed around having one teacher in each grade level teach all the virtual students, but the numbers didn't work out for this. The definite pro was keeping my roster of kids the whole year.

But, this was crazy! I basically made or taught everything twice. I have never been so happy to see the backside of a school year. Although, I had a GREAT class! They were amazing.

June 18- last day of school. We started late, after Labor Day, in 2020 because we were supposed to move a bunch of schools/grades around. There were delays last year so they're doing that this year. Somehow I ended up being the only teacher in my building (and one of the few K-8 teachers in the district) who doesn't have to move classrooms (really by fluke- my part of the hallway ended up being where 2nd grade was sent, and I just happened to already be there). So my co-workers all ended this crazy year by packing up their classrooms.

So...that's why I haven't been on LT. I've done some reading, but I'm way behind my goals and where I've been in previous years. I have some catching up to do!

I have so much respect for all the teachers who made it through this crazy year, Jenny. Enjoy that well-earned summer break!

>45 MickyFine: Thanks! If I never see another zoom meeting, it'll be too soon ;-)

Probably not going to get to cover pics and recaps of all the books I've read so far, but I'll at least list them so I can add pictures later if I want to.

5. The Last Mrs. Summers
6. The Girl in the Steel Corset
7. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
8. The Girl with the Iron Touch
9. The Girl with the Windup Heart

10. Learning to Pray - I read this during Lent (and a bit beyond). Parts I knew and was familiar with but some new things too.

11. To All the Boys I've Loved Before- I saw the movie on Netflix too, and actually really liked both of them. I think the changes they made in the movie were okay (I think it helped that I watched first- for some reason that makes me hate movie adaptations less)

12. P.S. I Still Love You
13. The Switch- very good! Not as good as The Flatshare but that was a top 3 read of the year for me back in 2019 (I think?) when I read it first. Definitely still recommended.

14. The Things We Cannot Say- This was a really well-done book. It flips between past and present and one thing that I liked (and came up in book club when we talked about it) was that the present-day story was as rich and layered as the past storyline. Sometimes it seems like the present-day stories are not as developed. This was emotional and portrayed all the difficulties and horrors of WWII without "showing" the actual physical violence.

15. Always and Forever, Lara Jean- The biggest bummer of these movies vs. the books was that the movies take place in Portland, but the books take place in Charlottesville. I lived 45 min. from C'ville for 7 years and got my masters from UVa so I would've loved to see them filmed in C'ville!

16. The Girl Who Played With Fire- This series is so strong. They are painful and raw and violent and make you feel a lot of things. It's not a series I've been able to read right in a row- I need some breathing space between them.

17. The Court of Thorns and Roses- Sarah J. Maas is such a good writer! She can win you over to any character or storyline, even when you know it's happening.

18. The Life List- Lori Nelson Spielman also wrote The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany which I read earlier this year. She's also a local (to-me) author. I did not like The Life List as much as Star-Crossed Sisters. The premise is her finding herself again but she's written as a white woman who swoops into a lot of situations and "saves" people. I felt uncomfortable with several parts.

19. The Court of Mist and Fury- so good!!
20. The Martian- This book has been on my TBR list for a while. I'm so glad I read it! It's very technical- it's a novel but also kind of a how-to survive on Mars. There were definitely parts that went over my head, but I just thought that the way his mind worked to solve problems and the problem/solution mindset of the book was so interesting. This was not a look at the emotions of being completely alone.
21. The Right Sort of Man- Post-WWII marriage bureau murder-mystery. Right up my alley :-)
22. You Deserve Each Other- Romcom about a couple who is together but don't really like each other anymore. 3 stars- this relationship made me uncomfortable and they were definitely not ready to get married at the end
23. Fast Girls- good premise (women track and field athletes in the early days of females allowed at the Olympics) but this book had too many characters, and tried to address too many issues. Also, the author skimmed over the actual races. It's hard not to compare to The Boys in the Boat even though there are some key differences, but this one doesn't stack up.

24. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
This book is completely ridiculous and I loved it! It was a lot of fun- a mix of thieving and piracy and Victorian propriety.

>51 jennyifer24: Love the cover design on that one!

>51 jennyifer24: a mix of thieving and piracy and Victorian propriety

Sold! Adding it to my list!

>52 MickyFine: Agreed! I'm not sure it accurately represents the book but I like it too!

>53 scaifea: It's so much fun! I'm glad that short description sold you- I couldn't decide what to write. I went into it knowing about that much- and liking the cover- and I think figuring it out was part of the appeal.

Whew! The end of the year sounds like such a whirlwind. I hope you're able to get some relaxation this summer to make up for it a little. Sounds like you're reading some good books too - I really enjoy ACOTAR and the rest in that series, though I think A Court of Mist and Fury is my favorite.

>55 bell7: Thanks! I'm hoping to get in a lot of reading time, and also catch up on seeing people- in real life! Yay!

When I was reading A Court of Misty and Fury, toward the end, I was convinced Feyre was going to end up spending the whole next book imprisoned after they were caught at the King of Hybern's trying to get the cauldron. I stopped reading for a week because I was so frustrated at having to read a whole next book with her out of the action. Then I finally read it, and that wasn't what happened at all. Oops!!

25. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
This has been on by TBR list, kind of, for years. I was browsing in the library and happened upon Blackout. Before I read it I realized that it was third in a series, and I just can't read series out of order. But, my library didn't have Doomsday Book so I kind of forgot about it for awhile. I finally thought about it while browsing on Libby a few weeks ago.

So, I knew this book was about time travel, but that's basically it. I didn't realize that it was about epidemics/pandemics. So, I'm glad I read it now- it wouldn't have been the same pre-covid, but I'm not sure I could've handled it earlier in our own pandemic.

Without giving too much away, this is a split narrative, with one main character time traveling back to the 1300s and the other staying in 2054. An epidemic flares up in the modern time which affects everyone.

One strange/funny part was that immediately after the epidemic starts, one character starts worrying that they're low on toilet paper. I had to stop and check the publishing date (1992)- she nailed that one! The biggest frustration was the lack of technology. Even though the modern part of the story takes place in 2054, there's no cell phones, and no call-waiting. This book could have been shorter by multiple pages if the characters weren't always running messages, and waiting for missed calls, and waiting for someone to be available to sit and wait to take a message. I wonder how much of that was deliberate and how much was a miss. Reading it now feels like a step into the past, rather than the future.

I have some plot-related questions, but overall this was a good read. The amount of overlap between the book and the current pandemic is pretty disappointing- in that humans are apparently pretty predictable and don't always learn much from the past. Parts are definitely emotionally difficult to read but there is a lot to think about.

26. My Badass Book of Saints by Maria Morera Johnson
This book was more memoir than I expected, but I didn't mind that. I thought that the author had relevant experiences to contribute and they helped me relate to saints who often lived long ago. I thought that even thought she didn't have as much information about each saint as I expected (although for some there just isn't a lot of info available), I now can learn more about the ones who were most interesting to me.

So, my first book of July 2020 was #52 for the year, and my first book of July 2021 is #26. Had a little more free reading time in the first half of 2020...

>57 jennyifer24: I'm not that big a fan of Doomsday book but I really enjoy the rest of the series and have them all in my personal collection. To Say Nothing of the Dog will be heaps more fun to read, I promise.

>60 MickyFine: I'm excited for it! Hopefully I will get to it soon. Then I can read Blackout, the book I was meaning to read all this time!

27. Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph

I started this back in February, then put it to the side when we went back in-person. It's a pretty thick, thorough biography, but read pretty easily. Making Dorothy Day's biography interesting was probably not too challenging! I thought the authors presented the events and choices of her life objectively, offering the opposing viewpoint (that she so often went up against) and created a thorough, full picture of her life. My only real complaint is the number of people in there- seemingly everyone who worked at or visited her NYC Catholic Worker house gets a shout-out. The number of names could be confusing at times. Definitely recommended if you want to learn more about Day and/or the Catholic Worker movement.

>61 jennyifer24: Make sure you've got the time and space to tackle Blackout and All Clear back-to-back. There's quite a few characters and moving parts and having the first part fresh in your memory makes the second part much more enjoyable.

I missed a book. The numbers are right at the top, but I just switched them down here.

28. A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
29. A Rogue's Company by Allison Montclair
30. Live in Love by Lauren Akins
31. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I liked a lot about this book, but the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Nina would be throwing this raging party. Her history of raising her siblings and being so responsible doesn't make it seem likely that she'd be hosting this party (which is the entire second half of the book)
32. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - I just finished this last night and I'm not sure what to make of it yet.

Here are the other books I read in 2021 that I never added in.

33. Little Black Book
34. Written in My Own Heart's Blood
35. The Silent Patient
36. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
37. Behind Her Eyes
38. The Road Trip
39. For Batter or Worse
40. Confessions on the 7:45
41. Anne of the Island
42. Crazy Rich Asians
43. Court of Wings and Ruin
44. Court of Frost and Starlight
45. Little Secrets
46. A Court of Silver Flames
47. Miss Iceland
48. Little Beach Street Bakery
49. For the Wolf
50. Weather
51. People We Meet on Vacation