Considering my pathetic total of 35 books read and reviewed in 2008, the fact that I’m already at 23 for this year is rather cheering. It’s been pretty heavily weighted toward review books, though. I had pledged 20 books for the Read Your Own Books Challenge on New Year’s Day; I’ve gotten through 9 so far, so I’m not too far off track, but I do need to step up the pace just a bit for the rest of the year.
One reason that the review-book numbers have run higher this year is that I’ve received more of them as ARCs or close to their publication dates, and that makes me feel compelled to bump them to the front of the line. I still get a relatively small number of review copies and don’t feel overrun by them (most of the time), so I haven’t taken the step that some bloggers have of no longer accepting them, and I have no plans to do so. But if anyone has figured out the right balance between the review copies and reading your own books – library books aren’t a factor for me, and that keeps it a little simpler – please share your secrets!
All of my reviews since I started this blog are collected in chronological order and linked on the Book Talk Master List. Here’s an annotated list for 2009 so far, divided between RYOB Challenge and review books.
The Pages in Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home, Erin Einhorn (3.5/5) Memoir
Buffalo Gal, Laura Pedersen (3.75/5) Memoir
Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran, Azadeh Moaveni (4/5) Memoir (ARC)
True Colors, Kristin Hannah (3.5/5) Fiction
ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes – Year 1, Susan Helene Gottfried (4/5) Fiction
Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block, Judith Matloff (4/5) Memoir
What to Read When: The Books and Stories to Read with Your Child – and All the Best Times to Read Them, Pam Allyn (recommended, no rating) Advice/other nonfiction
The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, A Daughter, and the Town That Raised Them, Amy Dickinson (3.75/5) Memoir
Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, Ayelet Waldman) (4/5) Essay collection/Memoir (ARC)
Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family, Amy Tiemann (recommended, no rating) Advice/other nonfiction
Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl, Susan Campbell (3.75/5) Memoir/Social history
The Laws of Harmony, Judith Ryan Hendricks (3.75/5) Fiction
The 19th Wife, David Ebershoff (4.25/5) Fiction
The Unit, Ninni Holmqvist (4/5) Fiction (ARC)
History Lesson for Girls, Aurelie Sheehan (3/5) Fiction
Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult (4/5) Fiction
The Uncommon Reader: A Novella, Alan Bennett (4.5/5) Fiction
Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips (3.75/5) Fiction
Gatsby’s Girl, Caroline Preston (3.5/5) Fiction
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (3.25/5) Fiction
The Senator’s Wife, Sue Miller (3.75/5) Fiction
Escape, Carolyn Jessop (3.75/5) Memoir
Certain Girls, Jennifer Weiner (3.75/5) Fiction
General observations and trends:
- It’s been a good year for pretty good books. If I choose my reading well, I tend to expect most of my books to get ratings in the 3 to 4 range, and that’s pretty much where they’ve been so far. I have a hard time edging past a 4.25, but I think it’s good that I haven’t given any 2.75 or lower ratings yet.
- Also on the topic of ratings, I’ve decided that I won’t assign them to my occasional reviews of advice/self-help-type books. I don’t think they’re very useful or meaningful in those cases. Instead, I’ll recommend or not.
- It’s been a good year for thought–provoking themed reading.
- Breakdown by genre:
- Memoir: 8
- Fiction: 13
- General fiction: 5
- Women’s fiction: 4
- Historical fiction: 2
- Dystopian/futuristic fiction: 2
- Advice/Other nonfiction: 2
- March was my most productive month for reviews overall, and also the month when most of the books I read were my own. Coincidence?
- Even though I’ve read far more books by women, my highest ratings have gone to books written by men. As a feminist, should that bother me?
- I’ve liked most of what I’ve read this year, but I utterly loved one book: The Uncommon Reader. Gods Behaving Badly was probably my most fun read so far this year, and Honeymoon in Tehran the most enlightening memoir. The books that I’d most encourage other people to read – for completely different reasons, as there’s no connection between them – are Bad Mother and The 19th Wife.
My original intent in starting this blog two years ago was keeping a record of my reading. I think I’m finally getting the hang of that.
How has your reading year been going?
You know, I took a look at my own numbers of books read this year. It's down quite a bit (and I'm sad about that) BUT I have significantly fewer that I've loathed and/or given up on. That part, I'm not complaining about!
btw, I'll have Demo Tapes 2 out in September…
Susan – And you know I'll be in line (online?) for a copy of The Demo Tapes: Year 2 this fall, then :-).
I'm glad my overall numbers seem to be up so far this year, and I agree with you that LIKING more of what we're reading is a very good thing!
I'll start taking preorders on September 1, my friend. Stay tuned!
You've gotten off to a great start this year, Florinda!
I've definitely read more review/ARC books so far this year than my own books. I'm okay with that for the most part though as many of them are books I would have bought and read on my own anyway. The difference is that had I had to wait, they would have spent a bit more time on my shelves than they have most likely before I'd get to them. I've enjoyed the conversations though that pop up since I don't always seem to be the only one reading the books. This month, I'm dipping into my own TBR collection and reading at least two or three that have been there for years. It's a nice change. 🙂
I hope your mother-in-law is okay. She's in my thoughts.
SHG – I'll watch for the announcement on that :-).
Wendy (Literary Feline) – I have to agree with you about the conversation factor with ARCs and blog-tour review books; it is nice knowing that other people are reading them too.
I had thought I was doing worse on reading my own books, but I had left the "RYOB 2009" tag off two of my reviews that were part of it. 🙂 I haven't gone too far back into the stacks for some of them, though. I may try to get to some of the older ones during the rest of this year – you're right, it can be a nice change.
This makes me want to analyze my reading. Hmm. Might borrow your format here for a post of my own! BTW I have not heard back from that publisher on the Still Alice idea. Just FYI. Thought I'd give it another few days (since we've just had the 4th and maybe she's not around) and then check back.
Hope your mom-in-law is okay.
Lisa – Please, help yourself :-)! I enjoyed doing it.
I figured there was no news on the Still Alice idea, so I didn't want to bug you. There's still time to get it going, though.
My mother-in-law is home and not completely recovered, but doing MUCH better than she was this weekend!