January 2023 Reading

I’m going to be on vacation starting Saturday, so I’m calling the end of January reading early.  (OF COURSE I will be reading on vacation, but I’ll just log it for Februrary.)  I read fifteen books, which sounds like a lot until I say that eight of them were picture books.  Seven non-picture books is still a pretty good number, though.

Picture books first.  In one or another of the catalogs I get, I saw some picture books that looked cute and informative.  (The catalog also had stuffed versions of the main characters, but I have yet to acquire those!)  Brent bought me eight of the series and the last one came in the mail today.  They are Gumboot Kids Nature Mysteries, featuring needle felted mice Scout and Daisy.  The two friends investigate various natural phenomena beginning with field notes and observation and continuing with research in books.  Once the mystery is solved, the two friends have a mindful moment together.  The books then have a two-page spread of facts about the subject and then a nature craft for kids (or me…) to do.  My kids would have loved them when they were small.  Actually, T. was around so I read him one for story time now and he still liked it.  The titles I read, all by Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford, are The Case of the Story Rock, The Case of the Growing Bird Feeder, The Case of the Shrinking Friend, The Case of the Buzzing Honey Makers, The Case of the Vanishing Caterpillar, The Case of the Singing Ocean, The Case of the Hanging Food Catcher, and The Case of the Wooden Time Keeper.  Highly recommend.  Apparently there is also a TV series.

 

On to poetry.  My dear friend Paul Corman-Roberts is also one of my favorite poets.  He collaborated with artist Ray Swaney on a graphic novel-style edition of Paul’s poems.  The Sincere is inspiring and lovely.  Paul’s deep and moving words are enhanced by Ray’s drawings.  When I get both wisdom and art at once, I am happy.  Highly recommend.

 

In YA, I read Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones.  I liked the use and twisting of fairy tale motifs.  I found Howl himself kind of annoying, but Sophie is awesome.  (I also watched the Miyazaki movie after I finished reading.  T. insisted that I’ve seen it before, but he is wrong because I would have remembered.  The movie is also good, but in a very different way than the book.)  Eventually, I am sure I will read the sequels.

 

I read two general fiction books.  One was The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty.  It is the conclusion to her trilogy and I loved it.  The whole trilogy is wonderful.  The world-building is inventive.  But what really shines is the characters.  Both heroes and villains are compelling.  I was worrying about how the book could possibly end without terrible things happening to characters I liked.  No spoilers, but the end did not disappoint.  Go read it.

 

The only thing I don’t like about libraries is the part where you have to give the books back.  One reason I’m doing this post now is that I have to return Katherine Arden’s book The Bear and the Nightengale to the library.  It is a fairy tale novel with a Russian theme.  Again, the characters are the heart of the novel.  The prose is lovely, too.  Read this one, too.

 

Lest you think I love everything I read, it’s time to discuss the nonfiction.  I read three books in this category and they were all… challenging.  I read the first two volumes of Winston Churchill’s account of World War Two, The Gathering Storm and The Finest Hour.  I will not deny that the man has a way with words, but he has many an axe to grind.  And, by the way, he’s really mad that he doesn’t have two or three more axes, but Parliament wouldn’t give them to him even though he knew better than anyone else how many axes he was going to need.  The man never lacked for confidence.  Here is a sample of his writing displaying the confidence in spite of facts:  “If this is not scientifically correct, it ought to be.” (p. 360 of Their Finest Hour, in which he is discussing the spread of disease.  In our current plague times, this strikes an especially disturbing note.)  It is difficult to read someone’s work in the present day when that person is a staunch imperialist writing frankly about exploiting the resources of colonies.  Hitler was obviously a bad guy.  It’s disheartening to see that those on the other side were also not entirely good guys.  Better than Hitler is a pretty low bar.  I have four volumes to go to finish the series.  Wish me luck.

 

Finally, I read The Checklist Manifesto:  How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande.  I have no quarrel with the information in the book.  As a former office manager among other careers, I deeply believe in checklists and manuals and handbooks.  I felt like I was having things mansplained to me for nearly 200 pages.  Having been raised female, I persevered, but I was annoyed for most of the book.  The short version of the whole thing is that checklists are a useful tool in critical situations to keep focus on the essentials so no one dies (as in surgery and in airplanes).  In non-critical situations, they are also useful to ensure that no steps get skipped.  Some experimentation may be required to get the right items on the checklist.  There.  I saved you 200 pages of reading.

 

January total:  15

Spring to date:  15

2023 to date:  15