MarissaKings' 2016 Reads

Charlas75 Books Challenge for 2016

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MarissaKings' 2016 Reads

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1MarissaKings
Editado: Dic 21, 2016, 1:59 pm

I managed to read 64 books in 2015, which I'm happy with. I wrapped up my Master's in December, so I'm looking forward to having actual free time now where I can get caught up on my TBR pile!

Books Read in 2016

1. The Annotated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2. Earth and Space: Photographs from the Archives of NASA by Nirmala Nataraj
3. Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic of the HMS Erebus by John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell
4. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
5. The Voices: a Novel by F.R. Tallis
6. The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke
7. Slade House by David Mitchell
8. Lungdon by Edward Carey
9. This Census-Taker by China Mieville
10. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

11. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa
12. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
13. Bird Box by Josh Malarian
14. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
15. The Children's Home by Charles Lambert
16. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
17. The Passenger: a Novel by F.R. Tallis
18. The Heart: A Novel by Maylis de Kerangal
19. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkah
20. The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefevre

21. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
22. Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
23. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
24. Copper Sun by Sharon Draper
25. The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
26. The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo
27. Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbø
28. Furnace by Livia Llewellyn
29. The Past by Tessa Hadley
30. The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed

31. Life and Death on the Loxahatchee by James D. Snyder
32. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson
33. Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso by Kali Nicole Gross
34. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
35. The Sisters Are Alright by Tamara Winfrey Harris
36. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
37. The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
38. The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
39. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
40. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

41. Between the World and Me by Te-Nehisi Coates
42. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
43. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
44. The Electric Pencil by James Edward Deeds Jr.
45. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
46. Forked: A New Standard for American Dining by Saru Jayaraman
47. Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History by Roland Miller
48. We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greening
49. Room by Emma Donoghue
50. Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain by Charlotte Higgins

51. Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
52. Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
53. The Widow by Fiona Barton
54. Hold Still by Lynn Steger Strong
55. What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan
56. Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
57. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
58. America Pacifica by Anna North
59. Homegoing: a Novel by Yaa Gyasi
60. The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault

61. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
62. The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated by Helene Olen
63. Defending Jacob by William Landay
64. Wisconsin on the Air: 100 Years of Public Broadcasting in the State That Invented It by Jack Mitchell
65. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
66. Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
67. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reed
68. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
69. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
70. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

71. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling
72. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
73. Stiff: The Secret Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
74. The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan
75. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
76. Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
77. The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
78. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
79. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
80. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

81. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

2MarissaKings
Ene 2, 2016, 9:20 pm



1. The Annotated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I've been slightly obsessed with the story of Little Women since I was 7 or 8 years old. I remember reading a children's version of the novel, and the 1994 film version is one of my favorite movies of all time. The annotations in this version were fantastic in explaining sayings and literary and historical references, but the best part were the photographs of documents and objects from the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association and collections from Harvard's Houghton Library. This was a great way to tell the story.

3scaifea
Ene 3, 2016, 9:08 am

Congrats of finishing your master's degree!

4drneutron
Ene 3, 2016, 9:25 pm

Welcome back! I hope the reading time materializes! :)

5sandykaypax
Ene 4, 2016, 11:25 pm

The Annotated Little Women sounds wonderful. I love Little Women. We had 4 girls in our family, too, so I think I related. I need to look for this annotated version.

Sandy K

6MarissaKings
Ene 6, 2016, 10:14 pm

Thanks scaifea and drneutron! I'm still basking in my free time.

sandykaypax I highly recommend it! I think any little girl who reads Little Women finds at least one March sister to relate to.

7MarissaKings
Editado: Ene 8, 2016, 6:57 pm



2. Earth and Space: Photographs from the Archives of NASA by Nirmala Nataraj

The photographs in this book are incredible! This book presents traditional photographic images as well as photos produced with x-ray and infrared imaging. I really liked how the photos were presented - the book starts with photos of Earth and moves back from there, ending with some of the farthest-reaching photos produced. The accompanying text was also very informative without being too technical.

8drneutron
Ene 8, 2016, 8:05 am

I'm a space guy, so that one really makes me smile. I'm guessing the book isn't new enough to have some of the pictures from Pluto this summer.

9MarissaKings
Ene 8, 2016, 7:19 pm

drneutron No photos of Pluto (I was also hoping for Saturn's moon Enceladus), but they did include images from the comet that the Rosetta probe landed on!

10MarissaKings
Ene 11, 2016, 3:43 pm



3. Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS Erebus by John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell

This was a fascinating account of the search for and discovery of a ship that has been historically much-sought: Franklin's flagship HMS Erebus. I loved reading about how the search team relied on Inuit oral histories to eventually locate the wreck, and I can't wait to learn what they find out about the ship and expedition in the coming field seasons. I would have liked this more, but the casual Steven Harper-worship was a bit much for me.

11MarissaKings
Ene 13, 2016, 10:11 pm



4. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

This was the first book by Erik Larson that I've read, and I was definitely not disappointed. I loved his interweaving of the Crippen story and Marconi's work (it reminded me of Bill Bryson's writing, without the dry humor). I can't wait to read more by Larson.



5. The Voices: A Novel by F.R. Tallis

I loved the premise for this novel - young couple with a baby buys a spooky Victorian house outside of London in the 1970s only to start hearing strange voices through the baby monitor - but was pretty underwhelmed by it. I didn't really like the writing style, and some parts just seemed cheesy. I finished it simply because I am a sucker for knowing how horror stories end.

12MarissaKings
Ene 16, 2016, 5:49 pm



6. The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke

I decided that I wanted to read this book before seeing the movie, and I'm glad I did. I probably wouldn't have picked up the book otherwise, and I ended up really enjoying it. I had no idea that this was based on a true story until Punke's notes at the end.

13MarissaKings
Ene 20, 2016, 8:54 pm



7. Slade House by David Mitchell

I'd never read anything by David Mitchell before, so all I knew about him is that some of his books are 'different'. I didn't read the back-of-the-book summary for this one and had no clue what it was about, so when I blindly started reading I thought it was going to be about a boy in 1970s London who stole Valium from his mother. When this book took the turn that it did, I was completely hooked. After finishing it, I wanted to start all over from the beginning to see what I had missed.

14drneutron
Ene 21, 2016, 9:22 am

Now you need to read The Bone Clocks. While Slade House is great without it, there are tie points that you'll love once you read it. :)

15dk_phoenix
Ene 21, 2016, 11:53 pm

Someone recently recommended David Mitchell to me, and I'd never picked up one of his books before. Your comments are making his work sound even more intriguing, though I'm still not sure it's "my kind" of book (because I still have no idea what his stories are about). But I'm getting the sense that it might be even better to just pick up his work blind? I like doing that sometimes as it means I can truly enter a story with zero expectations.

16MarissaKings
Ene 24, 2016, 12:12 pm

drneutron - Yes! I did read that there were a lot of references to The Bone Clocks, so I'm adding that one to my to-read list :)

dk_phoenix - It worked for me! In Slade House, it was the elements of mystery and suspense that really drew me in. For me it's definitely a good 'gateway' book to the rest of his work!

17MarissaKings
Ene 25, 2016, 2:38 pm



8. Lungdon by Edward Carey

I still love the idea of this series, but I found myself falling out of interest with it as it went on. I found this last book to be just OK, but the original illustrations are interesting and creepy enough to make going through it worthwhile.

18MarissaKings
Ene 28, 2016, 10:08 am



9. This Census-Taker by China Mieville

I was really intrigued by the synopsis of this book but in the end wasn't blown away by it. There were definitely some interesting elements - I liked how at different parts of the book, the narrator refers to himself as I, the boy, and you, which to me changed how I read those passages - but I found myself wanting more from it.

19MarissaKings
Feb 1, 2016, 11:07 am



10. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

I remember all of the hype around this book when it came out, so I'm glad I waited to read it. It was OK - it's a book where I was constantly frustrated by the decisions made by the characters, but I'm glad that it didn't end up with a happily-ever-after ending. I'll probably see the movie when it comes out later this year.

20MarissaKings
Feb 2, 2016, 7:00 pm



11. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa

This isn't a book that I ordinarily would have picked up, but one of my New Year's resolutions was to read new books in 2016, and I really liked the title. I ended up loving it. The story centers on the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, and each chapter tells a piece of the story from the perspective of a handful of different people, including a homeless teenager, the police chief, and a couple of protesters. Even though some passages were really hard to read because of the violence, this left me with a really good feeling.

21MarissaKings
Feb 6, 2016, 7:39 pm



12. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'd been meaning to read this for ages, and I'm glad I finally did. I loved the photographs used to illustrate the story and the historical aspect that I wasn't aware of. I'll definitely read the next book in the series and look forward to the movie coming out later this year!



13. Bird Box by Josh Malarian

Whoa. This book. I don't think I've ever been so anxious whist reading. From the first chapter until the end, I had a knot in my stomach and my heart rate skyrocketed. This book is just so tense. It's about something that, when seen, causes a person to go completely mad and attack people around them and/or kill themselves. So the only defense is to blindfold yourself, and when a mother decides to make her way to a refuge via rowboat, she thinks she is being followed by something that she cannot see. I have no idea why I'm drawn to post-apocalyptic stories like this - it reminded me at times of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I read a few chapters last night and had nightmares. Stories like this really get into my head.

22dk_phoenix
Feb 7, 2016, 9:26 am

Oh, wow. I've never heard of Bird Box and it sounds...super creepy.

23MarissaKings
Feb 21, 2016, 5:42 pm



14. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

Somehow this is the very first Stephen Ambrose book that I've read. I was definitely not disappointed.



15. The Children's Home by Charles Lambert

The premise for this book was great - a disfigured man lives on a large estate with just a housekeeper when strange children begin showing up and making themselves at home. After a few chapters my interest in the book plummeted. Bits and pieces of it were really good, but not enough for me to like the book as a whole.



16. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

In another first for me, this was the first book by Yann Martel that I've read. I liked it and could feel my high school English class lessons coming back to me as I tried to decipher some of the religious imagery. Although I know that I didn't catch and understand everything, I still liked it.

24MarissaKings
Feb 21, 2016, 5:44 pm

dk_phoenix I highly recommend it if you like creepy, anxiety-producing books! I still catch myself thinking about it weeks later.

25thornton37814
Feb 22, 2016, 10:02 pm

>23 MarissaKings: I'm hoping to get to the Martel book sometime this year.

26MarissaKings
Feb 24, 2016, 8:44 pm

thornton37814 It's worth a read! I've been reading some reviews of it, and it seems that others have found it a bit muddled and parts indecipherable as well, so that made me feel a bit better for not understanding everything :)

27MarissaKings
Feb 24, 2016, 9:01 pm



17. The Passenger: A Novel by F.R. Tallis

I was really looking forward to reading this novel about a cursed/haunted/paranormal German U-boat during World War II, but unfortunately I found it a bit slow. The most interesting parts were the descriptions of life and warfare on a submarine, but I thought that the ghost story aspect fell flat.

28MarissaKings
Feb 27, 2016, 10:37 pm



18. The Heart: A Novel by Maylis de Kerangal

This book about the time immediately preceding and leading up to a heart transplant was a really powerful, emotional read. This is going to sound really picky, but at first, I was a bit put off by the length of sentences in this book (seriously, one sentence could last an entire page). But after a while, the pace is strangely hypnotizing and I got sucked into it. I really liked this.



19. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

I really, really disliked this book. Oh man did I dislike it. The premise is that the main character, a children's librarian, helps a 10-year old patron run away from home (which, legally, is kidnapping). The entire book she complains about how much trouble she will get into if she is caught, how scared she is about being caught, and how maybe she shouldn't be helping transport the kid over several state lines. This does not stop her from transporting said kid over several state lines, though, but her excuse is that he's the one giving the directions. Nope.

29MarissaKings
Mar 10, 2016, 10:15 am



20. The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefevre

I'm really getting into non-fiction graphic novels, and this one was incredible. Using both illustrations and photographs to tell the story of the photographer's journey into Afghanistan was perfect.



21. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

I'd never read this novel before, and I'm glad I have now. I love how stark Hemingway's writing is. I'm working on helping to transcribe war diaries from World War I right now, so reading an account (even though it was fiction) of the front was interesting.



22. Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

In my quest to read recently released books, I picked this one up at my library. I found myself really drawn in to this weird book. I loved the split timelines that complement each other, and when it was over I almost wanted to start over reading again.

30MarissaKings
Mar 11, 2016, 7:57 pm



23. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

This is the second book by McCarthy that I've read (the first was The Road), and I now feel the need to read everything he's written. I got completely sucked into his style of writing for this one, and I loved it.

31Cait86
Mar 18, 2016, 11:28 am

>30 MarissaKings: Love No Country for Old Men! Definitely read All the Pretty Horses by McCarthy - it's sooooo good too.

32drneutron
Mar 19, 2016, 10:13 pm

Yeah, he's a fave of mine too!

33MarissaKings
Mar 23, 2016, 8:17 pm

Cait86 Thanks for the suggestion! I'm adding it to my to-read list :)

34MarissaKings
Mar 23, 2016, 9:04 pm



24. Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

My friend recommended this to me as an audiobook, and I'm very glad I took her advice. This book was fantastic - it's about an African girl who is forced into slavery, transported across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold to a plantation owner in South Carolina. This is classified as a YA book, and I wish I had read it in middle school.



25. The Crooked House by Christobel Kent

I was disappointed by this one. It took a while for me to get into it, I got into it for a few chapters, but then it got overly complicated and I didn't love the ending.



26. The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo

I just about Finnish Weird, and this book was definitely weird in the best possible way. This is about an alternate present where Finland is controlled by a patriarchy which strictly controls who can procreate and has also banned the use of alcohol, drugs, and chile peppers, which is used as a mind-altering substance. Weird, but good.

35MarissaKings
Mar 24, 2016, 10:08 pm



27. Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbø

I like this series of novellas linked together by the Fisherman, a Norwegian crime boss. It doesn't hurt that Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth) narrates the audiobook version. I didn't like this as much as the first in the series, Blood on Snow, but it was still enjoyable and the ending surprised me.

36MarissaKings
Mar 29, 2016, 9:19 pm



28. Furnace by Livia Llewellyn

If you ever want to read a book of short stories where, at the end of each one, you think to yourself, "What the hell did I just read?", then this is the book for you. What an odd and unsettling collection. I can't say that I really enjoyed this because so many of the stories made me feel so uneasy, but I think that's what the author was going for.

37MarissaKings
Abr 10, 2016, 5:27 pm



29. The Past by Tessa Hadley

I listened to this as an audiobook and ended up really liking it. It's a very quiet book - there's no huge action, and it's really just about the relationships between a group of siblings and their immediate families. Tessa Hadley's writing style is hypnotic and I just fell into it.



30. The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed

This book is important and interesting as a historical record. Yale University acquired the manuscript, which details firsthand the experiences of a free black man born in Rochester, NY in the 1820s who was sent to a juvenile reformatory and later Auburn State Prison. I thought that the editorial choices made to make the text more readable to a modern audience were well-thought out and explained in the introduction. The footnotes were also helpful in explaining the facts behind situations which were slightly altered from real life.

38MarissaKings
Editado: Abr 12, 2016, 9:21 pm



31. Life and Death on the Loxahatchee: The Story of Trapper Nelson by James D. Snyder

This was a quick and easy read. Trapper Nelson was a local legend (local to south Florida) who was a Tarzan look-a-like and ran his own little zoo off of the Loxahatchee River near Jupiter. He was purported to have buried his money all over his land and was discovered dead from a gunshot wound in the late 1960s. Although his death was officially ruled to be a suicide, other theories have abounded ever since.



32. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

Want to read a book that will make you increasingly frustrated over the treatment of women and intellectually handicapped in the past? Good lord. From Rose Kennedy not being allowed to give birth until the doctor arrived (to the tune of making her keep her baby in the birth canal for 2 hours while waiting for the doctor, causing serious oxygen deprivation to the baby) to Joe Kennedy deciding that a lobotomy was the best route for Rosemary after she started having tantrums, this book was hard to read at times. I know that things were different back then...but still. What a sad story.

39drneutron
Abr 14, 2016, 8:40 am

I haven't read the book on Rosemary yet, though it's on my list. David Nasaw talks about her life in his biography of Joe Kennedy, The Patriarch, and it's astonishing to me how poorly she was treated. Definitely a sad story.

40MarissaKings
Abr 16, 2016, 8:24 pm



33. Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso by Kali Nicole Gross

This was a really interesting read about a bizarre crime which shed light on racial tensions in 19th century Philadelphia. The details of the crime were so convoluted and never were fully brought to light, but I thought that the author's assessment in the epilogue made a lot of sense. Plus, I love books where archivists are thanked profusely in the acknowledgement section!

41MarissaKings
Abr 24, 2016, 9:50 am



34. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

This was really not my favorite work by Hemingway. I can't really put my finger on why - it didn't really feel like a cohesive work, but I think I read that it had started out as a short story. (As an aside, the first touchstone that came up for the title was for a Harry Potter book....?)



35. The Sisters Are Alright by Tamara Winfrey Harris

This was a really good book to read right after the book on Hannah Mary Tabbs. It looks at current stereotypes of black women in America and the history behind them. The author also interviewed women to talk about their experiences, and it was an all-around interesting read.



36. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this - I really liked it! I listened to the audiobook version on a long drive this past week, and it made the time pass really quickly. I would have liked a diagram of the wives, husbands, and missions just to keep everyone straight, but I think I finally remembered all of the names. This book really humanized the space program to me and made me think about the challenges faced by the astronaut's families.

42MarissaKings
mayo 14, 2016, 11:08 pm



37. The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni

I really, really enjoyed this quiet mystery-ish story. The setting of the Farallon Islands was interesting and gave the book a great hazy, forlorn atmosphere. The story was really about nature, both animal and human, and I enjoyed the telling of the majority of the story through the framework of the narrator's letters to a deceased parent.



38. The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

I could not put this book down. The premise had my attention immediately: a luxury yacht arrives in port on time, but there is nobody on board and no sign of the passengers or crew. I loved how the story alternates between the present-time investigation and the corresponding past events on board the ship, and I must have re-read the final few chapters 3 or 4 times trying to wrap my head around it (in a good way). Great read.



39. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

This book was haunting. I loved Tim O'Brien's writing about writing and about presenting truth versus presenting fact. Some scenes from the book are definitely going to stick with me for a long time.



40. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

I've been meaning to read this for forever, and listening to the AWC on audiobook finally spurred me to get to it. This was a very thorough account of the American side of the space race, but I wasn't always on board with Wolfe's writing style (I know this is really nit-picky, but there should be a limit on how many times you use ellipses in one book). Other than that, a great and interesting book.

43drneutron
mayo 16, 2016, 12:49 pm

You got me with The Lightkeepers!

44MarissaKings
mayo 19, 2016, 9:19 am

drneutron - I hope you like it! I know some of my library patrons mistook it for a thriller and were a little disappointed.....so just know that it's not an edge-of-your-seat read!



41. Between the World and Me by Te-Nehisi Coates

This book was very poignant, thought-provoking, and at times heartbreaking. I listened to the audiobook version of this, which was narrated by the author and made the book's framework as a letter to his teenage son feel even more personal.

45MarissaKings
mayo 20, 2016, 9:40 pm



42. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

"The story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd's death. It begins on a long-ago day in August when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man."

These are the first two sentences of the book. The story is told by the narrator reflecting on her life from prison, where she is awaiting a death sentence. Set in Zimbabwe, the story unwinds in three parts. The first part is the longest and the slowest moving, where Memory, the narrator (who has albinism) reflects on her childhood and her present situation. The second part moves into the events leading up to her imprisonment, and the third part brings resolution. This was a very quiet book, and I enjoyed it.



43. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri

This was another great audiobook listen. The author talks about her quest to learn the Italian language, which involves reflections on nationalities and cultural identities. Her passion for learning a new language is infectious and reminded me that I really, really need to learn French (which I have lazily been trying to learn forever). As this book had originally been written in Italian and then translated into English (not by the author, though), I do feel like I missed out on a huge point of the story, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Plus, Jhumpa Lahiri has a really soothing voice to listen to, whether in English or Italian.

46PaulCranswick
mayo 21, 2016, 2:26 am

A lot of great reading here, Marissa.

So impressed that Lahiri has written that book in italian and then had someone else translate it.

Have a great weekend.

47MarissaKings
mayo 25, 2016, 10:09 pm

PaulCranswick - I had never thought about whether or not a bilingual author would translate their own work! Lahiri talked about translating a short story of hers from Italian to English and hating the process.



44. The Electric Pencil: Drawings from Inside State Hospital No. 3 by James Edward Deeds Jr.

This was mainly a catalog of artist James Edward Deeds, Jr.'s drawings. The forward to the catalog tells what's been pieced together about Deeds - it is likely that he suffered from severe autism, which meant that he was institutionalized in the 1930s. He completed these drawings during his time at the State Hospital No. 3 in Missouri, where he was subjected to electroshock therapy. His drawings seem to be half portraits of people wearing Victorian-looking clothing and half drawings of objects (including cars and steamboats) and landscapes. I like the latter category the best, and this drawing was one of my favorites:



The rest are at http://www.electricpencildrawings.com/archive.html.

48MarissaKings
mayo 27, 2016, 9:58 pm



45. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

This was just as poignant and sad as I thought it would be. Just the author's story about how he came to be a neurosurgeon was interesting, but his thoughts on mortality and finding meaning in life after a terminal illness were thought-provoking. I'm glad he wrote this book as I am sure his daughter will appreciate it so much when she is older.



46. Forked: A New Standard for American Dining by Saru Jayaraman

This was an interesting study of how restaurants treat their employees, from the good to the bad. Each chapter is broken up by type of restaurant (fine dining, burgers, diners, etc.) and has examples of the 'high road' and 'low road' for standards and lows in current practices. It is eye-opening to read about what the National Restaurant Association ('the other NRA') lobbies for and about the amazing practices of some restaurants.

49MarissaKings
Editado: Jun 5, 2016, 6:12 pm



47. Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History by Roland Miller

If you have any interest in the space race or NASA, you should read this book. It's mainly photographs that Miller took of abandoned launch or training sites, but it has several essays on astronomical photography, modern archaeology, and reflections on the space shuttle disasters. Miller's photos are gorgeous, and some of them can be viewed here.



48. We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge

I liked this book, but I wanted to love it. It's about a family in the 1990s who participates in an experiment to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. The story is told from different family members' perspectives and jumps back into the past to tell a parallel story. It raises issues about race and language, and I felt like it started strong but just fizzled out. Still interesting, though.

50charl08
Jun 5, 2016, 7:07 pm

>45 MarissaKings: Very late to say so, but great to see another reader of The Book of Memory. I read her short story collection recently and really liked it.

Intrigued by the Charlie Freeman book - I enjoyed We are all completely beside ourselves which also focuses on a family living with a primate.

51MarissaKings
Jun 8, 2016, 8:34 pm

charl08 We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is on my to-read list! There are way too many interesting books out there. And I need to read Petina Gappah's short story collection too! Adding that one to my list right now...

52MarissaKings
Jun 10, 2016, 7:24 pm



49. Room by Emma Donoghue

I broke my cardinal rule with this and watched the movie before I read the book. I'm glad I did, because I listened to it on audiobook and I'm not sure if I would have stuck with it unless I had known how it turned out. I ended up liking it a lot.

53PaulCranswick
Jun 11, 2016, 2:56 am

>52 MarissaKings: I used to maintain the same rule, but came to the pretty obvious conclusion that there are far more books than films and I would just keep on breaking the rule, and I did.

Have a great weekend.

54MarissaKings
Jun 20, 2016, 7:26 pm



50. Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain by Charlotte Higgins

I really, really enjoyed this book. The author travels around the UK, visiting sites and museums featuring Roman objects and constructs. She talks about the Roman histories and legends and how much truth is likely mixed within. This was a slow, educational read that makes you think about multiculturalism in the UK then and now.



51. Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Basically, I love anybody who has anything to do with the band The Magnetic Fields. This led me to read The Vacationers by Straub (who used to sell merch for TMF) last year, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one as soon as it came out. This book is pretty much about a tangled knot of relationships between friends, neighbors, and spouses. It focuses on 3 couples during a summer in Brooklyn, and it even mentions Merge Records at the end. I loved it.

55MarissaKings
Jun 26, 2016, 11:22 am



52. Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe

This book is the story of an absentee father trying to reconnect with his 17-year old daughter, who may or may not be having a psychotic breakdown, by taking her on a historical tour of his grandmother's hometown of Vilnius, Lithuania. The story is punctuated with emails sent from Vera (the daughter) to her high school boyfriend Fang. It really made me think about mental illness, the meaning of family, and the concept of the self.



53. The Widow by Fiona Barton

I really am a sucker for British psychological thrillers. This tells the story of a missing child and the man accused of abducting her through the perspectives of the detective on the case, a reporter, the child's mother, and accused's widow. I loved the shifting points of view and non-linear timeline. For anyone considering listening to this as an audiobook, the narrators are fantastic.

56MarissaKings
Jul 5, 2016, 8:52 pm



54. Hold Still by Lynn Steger Strong

This was a good debut novel. It follows two timelines - one as the late teenaged daughter of two professors is sent to Florida to try to redeem/find herself, and the other after the Florida stay ends in tragedy. It took me a little getting used to the split timelines and I wasn't super invested in any of the characters, but I got into it enough to want to find out what happened.



55. What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan

Another British psychological thriller about a missing child. I have to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as The Widow, but I was still hooked enough to stay up until midnight to finish it.

57MarissaKings
Jul 26, 2016, 10:35 pm



56. Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

Margo Jefferson's memoir about growing up in an upper middle-class black family in Chicago was really interesting. She talks about grappling with racial, sociocultural, and gender identities throughout her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Her book is also a part-history about the social lives of prominent African Americans throughout the years.



57. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction, and I'd been meaning to read this classic for a while. I really liked it and the scientific aspect to the story, and I loved the ending. I also read a couple of Matheson's short stories but couldn't get into those....when it comes to creepy short stories, I'll stick with Shirley Jackson and H.P. Lovecraft.



58. America Pacifica by Anna North

I grabbed this book to continue my post-apocalyptic kick, and I loved the premise of it taking place after extreme global climate change on a large, partially man-made island in the Pacific. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. I don't know if it was the plot or the characters or both, but I just didn't really get hooked on it.

58MarissaKings
Jul 26, 2016, 10:45 pm



59. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This book was phenomenal. It's gotten a lot of hype, but I think that it is so well deserved. Every single chapter in this novel could have been its own book. It follows the descendants of Effia and Esi, half-sisters born in modern-day Ghana in the 18th century who never met each other. One marries a British colonial officer, the other is captured and sold as as a slave. Each chapter focuses on a different descendent, alternating between the two family lines and spanning centuries. Read this book.

59MarissaKings
Ago 6, 2016, 7:23 pm



60. The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault

Well, I really did not like this book. The premise sounded okay - possibly haunted house, split timeline between present and past - but I just did not like the story as it went along, didn't like either of the main characters, and though the ending(s) were ridiculous. Nope.



61. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I have been meaning to read anything by this author for a long time and finally grabbed this book of short stories just before a vacation. Short stories are verrrry hit or miss for me, even authors whose novels I like. I ended up really enjoying this collection, and my favorite story was "Jumping Monkey Hill".



62. The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated by Helene Olen

A patron at my library high recommended this book to me. I know next to nothing about personal finances, and this book seemed like a good introduction. It was. The authors posit that everything you need to know fits on a 4x6 index card, and they cover basics like credit card debt, retirement funds, and investing. They define terms and concepts in easily understandable language, and I'm definitely considering buying my own copy to have.

60MarissaKings
Ago 18, 2016, 9:16 am



63. Defending Jacob by William Landay

This legal mystery/suspense novel came recommended to my by my coworker. The premise was interesting - a prosecutor's son is accused of murder - and I thought that the first 2/3 of the book was good, but not great and I couldn't really understand my coworker's enthusiasm about it. I kept going back and forth on whether or not the son did it, but that was about all. The last 1/3 of the book, though, made up for it. There are several twists and you finally realize the context for the preceding conversations, and it definitely made this read worthwhile.

61MarissaKings
Ago 27, 2016, 7:12 pm



64. Wisconsin on the Air: 100 Years of Public Broadcasting in the State that Invented It by Jack Mitchell

This history of Wisconsin Public Radio was well written and well researched. Synthesizing 100 years into one readable book couldn't have been easy, but Jack Mitchell does a great job of it. Reading about the Wisconsin Idea and the fight to use public radio to empower the masses made me think about how taken for granted the Internet is today. I agree with a previous reviewer that I would have enjoyed more detail into some of the specific programs - the Homemakers' Program especially. I'm a very visual learner, so I also would have appreciated a timeline just to keep the dates, names, and acronyms straight, but this was really an excellent history.



65. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In a nutshell, a psychiatrist marries a patient, and things don't go as well as he thought they would. I listened to this as an audiobook and have flagged it to properly read in the future. Some elements really shone through for me, but at times all I could focus on was what a jerk the main character was.



66. Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett

I'm surprised at the amount of mixed-to-negative reviews that this book has been getting. I liked the premise of it being a retelling of Kafka's Metamorphosis set in Lagos with a focus on race, and I enjoyed the book overall. Yes, the main character, who is black but wakes up one morning to discover he is now white, is annoying and childish, but the story raised some interesting points on identities and perceptions.

62Sace
Editado: Ago 27, 2016, 7:44 pm

I found your thread so interesting and several books have made it onto my TBR pile. I have a bad habit of judging a book by its cover and I loved being able to scroll down and stop at a cover that piqued my interest (I'm lazy, it's true.)

I read Copper Sun a few years ago after a student recommended Sharon Draper to me. It's a great book.

Life and Death on the Loxahatchee looks fascinating. As a Florida native, I am a sucker for books about the state.

63MarissaKings
Ago 31, 2016, 8:13 pm

Sace If you liked Copper Sun, I highly, highly recommend Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi! I told my friend who had told me about Copper Sun about it, and she loved it. And Life and Death on the Loxahatchee was an interesting (and fast) read! There's really no shortage of weird books about Florida...

64Sace
Ago 31, 2016, 8:20 pm

>63 MarissaKings: Omigosh! I read Homegoing this summer and LOVED it!! Have you read Kindred? It was originally published in 1979 and I don't know why I hadn't read it sooner, but it was also very good. Octavia Butler is a sci-fi writer, but this was not sci-fi really. I liked her writing. I'm giving Wild Seed a try next.

65MarissaKings
Ago 31, 2016, 8:47 pm

Sace I have sadly never read Octavia Butler before, but I'm definitely adding Kindred to my to-read list! I've been meaning to read her for a while.

66Sace
Sep 1, 2016, 7:22 am

>65 MarissaKings: I hope you enjoy it.

67MarissaKings
Sep 1, 2016, 7:57 am

Sace I hope so too! I think I will, I've heard a lot of good things about Octavia Butler.

68MarissaKings
Sep 1, 2016, 8:07 am



67. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Holy cow, talk about twist endings. This book is about a young woman and her boyfriend taking a trip to his parents' farm, and the story is told from her perspective. She's been getting these weird phone calls from someone she calls the Caller who leaves depressing and cryptic messages, but she hasn't told anyone else about it. She's also thinking of ending things with her boyfriend. The first 2/3 of the book was ok - you can tell it's building up to something, and there's something very off about the boyfriend and his family. The last 1/3 of the book was creepy and anxiety-inducing, and now that I've finished it, I want to read it all over again to catch at the significance of some of the conversations. I didn't enjoy this as much as the nerve-wracking Bird Box, but it was pretty good.

69MarissaKings
Sep 2, 2016, 7:52 pm



68. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

This book reminded me a lot of The Girl on the Train. The protagonist wakes up in hospital with no recollection of what happened to her or about her role in a murder that has taken place (or even who the victim is). She pieces back together her weekend and comes to grip with what has happened. It was okay; it started to drag on in the middle, and the main character wasn't a great judge of people. The ending was a bit too well-wrapped up for me.

70Sace
Sep 2, 2016, 9:11 pm

>69 MarissaKings: It sounds interesting. Despite the draggy middle I might still see if my library has it. Was the main character's poor judgment of the "too stupid to like her" variety?

71MarissaKings
Sep 4, 2016, 3:03 pm

Sace Not too stupid, but she's more of a doormat - I kept yelling at her (I listened to the first half of the book on audio during morning commutes) to stand up for herself and stop making excuses for others. I didn't think it was terrible, just a quick, easy read.

72Sace
Sep 4, 2016, 4:27 pm

>71 MarissaKings: I'm laughing at the image of you yelling at her during your commute.

73MarissaKings
Sep 23, 2016, 9:37 pm

Sace Nothing inspires makes me look like I have anger management problems more than a character making poor choices!

74MarissaKings
Sep 23, 2016, 9:53 pm



69. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I thought this book was fantastic. I loved the character vignettes spread throughout the book to give more of a glimpse into the backstories of the main and supporting characters and also loved the author's literal depiction of the Underground Railroad. I'm surprised at some criticism that I've read about the main character Cora, that she is underdeveloped, cold, and distant. She wasn't a warm and cuddly book character, probably because her circumstances weren't exactly warm and cuddly. There were some incredibly haunting passages in this book that I am still thinking about.



70. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

What can I say about this? It's Bill Bryson. Wry and charming. A friend of a friend apparently moved to Australia because of this book, which I don't really find surprising.



71. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling

This was an enjoyable, short listen. I only wish that the last part of the book was more developed, rather than the random lists that Mindy Kaling ended on. I'm definitely adding her second memoir to my to-listen list.

75MarissaKings
Sep 26, 2016, 7:33 am



72. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care for Ruth Ware's writing. The premise of the book is that a travel journalist witnesses a body being thrown overboard on a luxury cruise, but nobody believes her as nobody is missing from the manifest. I liked the premise, but once again I couldn't stand the main character and just wanted her to get a grip throughout the entire novel. Once the details of the mystery are revealed, it is so ridiculous and improbable that I wanted to throw the book out the window. If you want a good mystery/thriller set on a cruise ship, read The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.

76MarissaKings
Dic 1, 2016, 9:24 pm

Oh wow have I gotten behind in tracking my reading. Just to catch up:

73.
Stiff: The Secret Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

74.
The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan

75.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

76.
Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman

77.
The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

78.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

77drneutron
Dic 1, 2016, 10:25 pm

Congrats on blowing past 75!

78MarissaKings
Dic 2, 2016, 9:43 am

Thanks drneutron! I'm still chugging along and hope to get a few more done by the month's end :)

79MarissaKings
Dic 21, 2016, 1:57 pm



79. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell



80. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher



81. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

80PaulCranswick
Dic 23, 2016, 11:28 pm



Wouldn't it be nice if 2017 was a year of peace and goodwill.
A year where people set aside their religious and racial differences.
A year where intolerance is given short shrift.
A year where hatred is replaced by, at the very least, respect.
A year where those in need are not looked upon as a burden but as a blessing.
A year where the commonality of man and woman rises up against those who would seek to subvert and divide.
A year without bombs, or shootings, or beheadings, or rape, or abuse, or spite.

2017.

Festive Greetings and a few wishes from Malaysia!

81PaulCranswick
Dic 31, 2016, 7:18 am



Looking forward to your continued company in 2017.
Happy New Year!

82MarissaKings
Ene 28, 2017, 6:59 pm

Dropped the ball on this, my final read of 2016 was:



82. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot