How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?
I read 116 books plus 4 graphic novels this year. My goal was 100 so I did beat it by a good amount. Those 116 books equaled just over 40,000 pages.
What story stayed with you a long time, left you wanting more or needing time to digest?
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon. I have recommended it to so many people. It’s interesting to think about how the journey is what matters and if you don’t do something because it might not work out or it may end, well, you are missing out. Take the risk. It’ll be worth it.
What are some quotes that made you read them a second time?
At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. (Edgar Allan Poe)
I feel like an on-call OB/GYN in a Mormon polygamist compound. (The Case of the Not-So-Fair Trader by Jim Stevens)
“You could cook an egg on the sidewalk,” Tiffany argues.
“I don’t do dairy,” Doris retorts. (The Case of the Not-So-Fair Trader by Jim Stevens)
“But I don’t judge. I do not judge.” He notices Hephaestus’s gavel. “Apparently, you do, though.” (Lovely War by Julie Berry)
“Please,” he said, “if we’re going to be friends, I insist you call me ‘Your Majesty.'” (Lovely War by Julie Berry)
Cryptic in his famous Adam style that had once annoyed her to no end, but now she realized that if a girl cares enough to be constantly annoyed by a boy, then she must holds some primal interest in him. (Night Without End by DP Fitzsimons)
One cannot change one’s way of thinking as easily as one might, say, turn into a snow leopard. (The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan)
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was bothering anyone,” said Arthur, slightly abashed and then slightly more abashed at being abashed by a talking tree. (The First Round Table by Ben Gillman)
“I fought an army single-handedly. Lost my arm. Then literally fought them single-handedly.” (The First Round Table by Ben Gillman)
The international boycott movement had its origins and greatest resonance in the United States, a nation whose professed commitment to equality of opportunity in sports was not diminished by its actual discriminatory practices. (Nazi Games by David Clay Large)
So just before I left Terry for the last time, less than a year later, I went to an afternoon ‘tea, and when the Captain’s wife asked me, in front of the other ladies, what I intended to do to keep busy while the ship was gone to Vietnam, I replied, with a level gaze, ‘Well, I’ve heard that the topless go-go dancers around here make a lot of money, and have a lot of fun. I think I’ll find a job like that. They say you don’t have to be experienced!’
The captain’s wife dropped her teacup. (A Quiet Life in Bedlam by Patricia Bjornstad)
That was the only time I thought about murdering someone. But I didn’t know how to dispose of the body. (A Quiet Life in Bedlam by Patricia Bjornstad)
“…Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling)
“And, since they are theater people, they are all talking. All of them. Simultaneously. They do not need to be heard; they only need to be speaking.” (Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan)
“Nobody’s accusing you of anything, ma’am,” Drew says. “They’re just catching you in a lie, is all.” (Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier)
As the noted philosopher Britney Spears sang on her pop hit “Circus:” “There’s only two types of people in the world/ The ones that entertain and the ones that observe.” (The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch)
“Just because a place is fictional doesn’t mean it isn’t real.” (Ballad & Dagger by Daniel José Older)
Top 5 Books of the Year
Instructions for Dancing by Nichola Yoon
Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
The Perfect Family by Sholini Boland
Bottom 5 Books of the Year
Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia by Michal Viewegh
The Blackmail Club by David Bishop
The First Round Table by Ben Gillman
Murder by the Slice by Mary Maxwell
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
How many books are in your To Read pile right now?
673. For the first time in years my TBR pile went down. This is because I spent a lot of time going through my Kindle books and I discovered I’m just not the person I was when I got them a decade ago so I deleted them. Subtracting the books I read and the books I deleted and adding the many books I bought this year (211), I am down 238 books from exactly one year ago. (That’s 130 fewer than at the end of 2020, 86 fewer than 2019, 12 more than 2018, and 143 more than at the end of 2017 when I started keeping track.)
Mama Reader 