Summary Post for 2022

Total Books read: 100+ (and yes, I read all the short little ones to make it to this century mark!)

Pages read: 27,952 ………………………………2021: 29,419
Average pages per book: 274……………………………..241
Average pages per day: 77……………………………….81

Hours listened: ~240
Audiobooks count: 33

My TOP 22 in the year 2022:

Top Ten: City of Girls, Brown Girl Dreaming, Autumn, Lucy by the Sky, Lessons in Chemistry, Five Tuesdays in Winter, Dinosaurs, The Sentence, Trust, This Time Tomorrow

I’m so pleased that these hit many different genres and categories!

Random Stuff:

29 FIVE SLICES OF PIE

53 FOUR

16 THREE

3 TWO

0 ONE

(These are spookily similar to last year!)

Books read that were over 400 pages: 13

REALLY ODD to me that I didn’t read any true chunksters (>500) this year. #Shrug

Female to Male Ratio: 72 / 26 (~12 of that 26 being US or Brit white dudes…)
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 42 (compared to 72 last year)
Repeat Authors = 34
Total Books by Authors of Color/LGTBQ+ = 26 (best guess estimate – didn’t do thorough research into backgrounds, assumptions might have been made)

Oldest Book: 1850 – Sonnets from the Portuguese by EBB

Number of Books Pub’d in 2022: 32 (and 27 pub’d in 2021!, 67% pub’d in the last 3 years!!!)
Books over 25 years old = 10 – over 50 years old = 7

Hardcovers 22
eBooks 19
Audiobooks 33
Tradeback 26
paperback 1 . . . . . . . . also spookily similar to last year.

Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 46
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 1
Children’s = 2
Total Memoir Books Read = 12
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 22
Short Story / Essays = 3
Poetry = 5
Mystery/Thriller = 2
Translated = 2
Fantasy = 1
SciFi = 1
Historical Fiction = 8
Cookbooks = 0
Adventure = 0
Business = 1
Graphical = 1

Number of debuts: 10 (best guess)
Best debut: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Number of books read on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die: 2
The Optimist’s Daughter
Giovanni’s Room
(this is a very low count for me. eeeek)

Interesting Coincidences – How many time the word TOMORROW was in the book titles this year! This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Books that mentioned pie: 47

And…  the Care’s Books & Pie 2022 Pie in Literature Award goes to:

Four books vie for the title this year, let me explain.

The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks by E.Lockhart. has considerable space devoted to a cross-country adventure eating at pie shoppes along the way. Who wouldn’t LOVE that? However, it wasn’t til I had completed the book that I realized that Lockhart was an author of a book I loathed. (We Were Liars. UGH)

True Biz by Sara Novic has a bit about a character wearing a Miss Sweet Potato Pie costume!

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has multiple mentions of pie and also features a town dance where eligible young ladies bring a tempting pie to attract a future husband. Pivotal pie plot point, methinks.

The Rabbit Hutch features a diner that has a pie theme – but not any old pie theme: Avant Garde pie: new and unusual  — which is ME! and how I came into my pie passion.

drum roll, please

.

.

.

And the winner goes to The Rabbit Hutch! weird pie wins hands down, all day every day. I only wish we could have had more descriptions.

Best Pie Quote:

“I left a slice of pie in my desk drawer,“ she said mournfully. “It’s probably halfway to the moon by now.”

Subdivision by J.Robt Lennon

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Summary Post for 2021

Total Books Read = 122
Average Books Read Per Month = 10
Best Reading Month =  July 15 or April 14
Worst Reading Month = Jan or Nov

Total Pages Read = 29,419
Average Pages Per Book = 241
Average Pages Read Per Day = 81

Total Chunksters (400+ pages) Read = 14

Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 36
Lighter Contemporary Fic = 5
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 6
Children’s = 4
Total Memoir Books Read = 12
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 24
Short Story Collection = 1
Poetry = 8
Mystery/Thriller = 2
Translated = 5
Fantasy = 5
SciFi = 9
Historical Fiction = 8
Cookbooks = 2
Adventure = 1
Business = 2
Graphical = 1

Formats
Total Audio Books “Read” = 29
Total Ebooks Read = 28
Total Hardcover Books = 26
Tradeback/Paperback = 39

Ratings
★★★★★ = 37
★★★★ = 57
★★★ = 21
★★ = 6
★ = 

Authors
Total Books By Women = 77
Total Books By Men = 45
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 72
Repeat Authors = 26
Total Books by Authors of Color = 33

Miscellaneous
Total Graphic Novels Read = 0
Total Books Reread = 0
Total “Classics” Read = 15
Total Books Read for Book Club = 6

Oldest book: The Epic Gilgamesh
Longest book:  856 JS&MN
Shortest book: 18 Pumpkin Pie

Longest book title:    A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland  

Shortest book title: Jack

Debuts: 17
On List of Books to Read Before You Die: 4
Book to Movie: 3, Book to Play: 1, Book to TV Miniseries: 1

Books with Pie: 58

Care’s 2021 Pie in Lit Award goes to….  The Resisters!

 

I read more books than I ever have in one calendar year. Yet, I didn’t have any standout amazing reading experiences. BUT WAIT! I do NOT mean to say I didn’t have a great reading year because I did! I had many tremendous 4 & 5 star reads and if I were to really look at the list, some of those fives would drop to 4 and some of those 4s would elevate to a 5 and so I’m NOT going to look.  

I’m going with what I set when I recorded in my spreadsheet and blog. I did pretty good on blogging reviews this year, though that last few months were a disappointment. That’s OK, it’ll be OK. Get back up if you fall down; no need to dither/dather over spilt milk and attempt to go back in time to fix. Nope.

I can’t think of how to do a top 5 or even a top 10 so I’m following Melissa’s example over at Avid Reader:

Best Books You Read In 2021

♦ Classics — One True Thing by Anna Quindlen 1994
Historical Fiction — The Cold Millions by Jess Walter and Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Mystery — Swann -or- Long Bright River
Literary Fiction — Top 3: The Promise by Damon Galgut, Luster by Raven Leilani, Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
Nonfiction —These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Fantasy —The Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow
Poetry – It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful – Lia Purpura and Jeanne Griggs Postcard Poems!
Science Fiction — Martha Wells Murderbot Series
YA — Alone with the Stars by David Graham 

♦ Books You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, Skippy Dies/Paul Murray and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

♦ Most surprising (in a good way) book you read? Stephen Florida. It is a DEBUT.

♦ Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read? n/a

♦ Best series you started in 2021? Murderbot

♦ Favorite new author you discovered in 2021? Anna Quindlen and Raven Leilani

♦ Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone? (I can’t think of anything to fit this…)

♦ Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? I can’t think of anything to fit this either. The most memorable “unputdownable” book that comes to mind is the opposite of action-packed! Whereabouts by Lahiri

♦ Book You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year? Goodness, um NONE? Maybe These Precious Days. I rarely reread and certainly not so quick in time. (OK, that isn’t quite true… I read Milkman twice in the same year and I read Duchess Goldblatt, twice in the same year, too! #shrug)

♦ Favorite cover of a book you read in 2021? Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch or Euphoria by Lily King or The Resistors by Gish Jen

♦ Most memorable character of 2021? Narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation or Narrator in The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison or Konstance in Cloud Cuckoo Land .

♦ Most beautifully written book read in 2021? The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor

♦  Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2021?  Did That Just Happen?!

♦  Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2021 to finally read? Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (and Anne Frank and Housekeeping and Fun Home and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) (And Alice in Wonderland.)

♦  Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2021?

♦ Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2021? You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie (18 pages) by Natalie Marshal and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (865 pages) by Susanna Clarke

♦  Book That Shocked You The Most? Effin Birds by Aaron Reynolds (LOL)

♦  Favorite Couple? Caroline & Tom Donohoe in The Radium Girls. True love.

♦  Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year? Murderbot and ART?

♦  Favorite Book You Read in 2021 From an Author You’ve Read Previously? The Green Mile by SK, These Precious Days by AP

♦  Best Book You Read In 2021 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else? Yoga Pant Nation maybe. Or… wait for it. Murderbot!

♦ Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2021? no idea.  I can’t keep answering with Murderbot, can I?

♦  Best 2021 debut you read? Luster by Raven Leilani

♦ Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?  The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

♦  Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read? Murderbot

♦  Book That Made You Cry in 2021? These Precious Days

♦ Hidden Gem Of The Year?  The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung (probably the book that had the least chatter in my world…)

♦  Book That Crushed Your Soul? The Trees by Percival Everett

♦ Most Unique Book You Read In 2021? Several People Are Typing! by  Calvin Kasulke

♦ Book That Made You the Maddest? Detransition, Baby (that so many people argued about  Torrey Peters being eligible for the Womens Lit Prize)

♦  Best Audiobook? Cloud Cuckoo Land / Anthony Doerr and Black Gold by Theresa Edwards

♦ Best Book to Film Adaptation? One True Thing & Housekeeping

 

Copyright © 2007-2022. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2020 in Review

I read 102 books. 

 Total pages 14,320. Hours ~124

Female/Male:  51/49 

Fiction/Non: 78/24 

New to Me Authors: 91 /  Repeat Authors: 11 

This year, I read my 6th Shirley Jackson. I read a 5th book by Elizabeth Strout. Four authors, I read for the 3rd time:  James McBride, Wallace Stegner, Drew Rozell, and Toni Morrison. The rereads included an author that was both a first for the year and then read it with my ears for its second intake: Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. I reread The Sellout for the TOB Super Rooster and I read two poetry collections by Billy Collins. I read 4 authors for the second time:  read another by Ta-Nehisi Coates but the second was fiction. I read the next in a series to catch my second by Hilary Mantel. Michael Pollan’s Caffeine was my second of his. 

Classics: didn’t have the patience to figure this out; oldest book The Picture of Dorian Gray 1890. Only 2 books published before 1900. Books published in 2019 = 20, in 2020 = 23.

Shortest book:  Not figuring this out because I read so many poetry collections that were < 100 pages and plenty of novellas, and I couldn’t decide how to handle exceptions to not. Plus I read a lot of kids books. 

Longest book: Ducks, Newburyport at 1020 pages. Took me months. 

Longest Audiobook: Ok, here’s where I admit that I didn’t keep track this year. And more truth is that last year, I created my track sheet in December! So, it is just not going to happen where I present all the stats and show pretty pie graphs. Maybe 2021. Maybe.

The longest audiobook was likely We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry, at 14 hours and 44 minutes. And it was too long. Fun! but too long. Not typical that I didn’t have any chunkster audiobooks!  You might suggest it would be lack of a commute and thus no listening while driving time?  But I rarely listened to my audiobooks on commute to work. Not sure…  

LIke last year, I took advantage of Audible’s monthly freebies quite often.

This is last year’s pie chart just because this post needs some color. LOL

Comparing… THIS YEAR, I upped my 5 star givings to 34%! Four stars were given to 33 %, three stars to 38%, and 4% got 2 stars. No ratings of 1 star.

Which is interesting… Because I don’t feel like I had a really tremendous feel-good reading year. Maybe this actually supports that I can’t quickly think of my top reads? Too many?

Favorite poetry:  Mad With Yellow by Lisa J. Starr

I didn’t do any readalongs. I didn’t do any reading projects. (Tho, @Bybee might think different?)

WAIT! not true. My poetry was a personal reading project and it was wonderful. I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams to read a poem every day. Did it change my life? Maybe. Maybe…

I did do the Super Rooster and am quite pleased with myself.

My blogging could be described as “fits of bursts”; I’m okay with what I managed to post.

I finished the What’s in a Name 2020 Challenge earlier than usual. All good.

I read 4 (2 to completion) books in 2020that were on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die: Tender is the Night, Club Dumas, Cry the Beloved Country, Treasure Island.

My first time to read 100+ books but I feel like I cheated, to be honest. Yea, yea, I know that the book police ain’t out to get me or anything but the challenge to make it doesn’t sit right with me. I honestly have taken that last 3 weeks off. I can feel it in my brain that I’m not reading — yet I can’t seem to sit and READ. It’s such the weirdest thing.

Hoping the flip of the calendar page, will truly bring a renewed motivation and thrill with reading. But yowza, I hate to DNF. 

Finally, PIE:                               

and, drumroll please for the 2020 Pie in Literature Award, the WINNER of my best book with pie for this year is  Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman!

The fact that it’s important not to despair though when you’ve got pies in the oven, …, the fact that you have to have mercy on your pies, be there for your pies, and in return they will be good dutiful pies and serve you, …

Honorable Mentions:  Oh, goodness. I read so many more pie-themed books this year! I read a pie cookbook (wait, I do that every year, don’t I?). I sought out pie-themed books, truth. 

I hail Ladybird, Collected (and NO – not just because it mimics Ducks with that comma) but because I want everyone to read it and have it get picked up for national distribution. Please visit HERE or HERE to get your copy.

I bring to your attention to We Ride Upon Sticks – some good pie mentions; make me smile just to think on. And well, sure, of COURSE:  Summer of a Thousand Pies, Enemy Pie, and Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe.

Finally, the pies I made yesterday and today! 

Harvey Wallbanger Pie for Dad’s birthday and the Spinach Ham Gouda Quiche made today for Happy New Year!!

Be kind, be readin’, give me a book rec. Let’s chat this year, yes? 

 

 

 

It’s no small thing, feeling that we matter, that we couldn’t just be any diner and it couldn’t just be any pie.        – Ladybird, Collected 

Review 2019

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2019 in Review

I read 73 books. 

 Total pages 13,568. Hours 240

Female/Male:  40/33

Fiction/Non: 59/14

New to Me Authors: 59 /  Repeat Authors: 14 

This year, I read my 7th Ann Patchett. Two authors, I read for the 3rd time:  Thomas Hardy and Matt Haig. I read 11 authors for the second time. The only reread was Milkman, by Anna Burns, both this year – one by eBook and one by audio. I also read Say Nothing, a nonfiction view into the times and setting of Milkman. A themed combination that created a great reading experience.

Classics: 14; oldest book Candide 1759. Only 3 books published before 1900. Books published in 2019 = 20, in 2018 = 23.

Shortest book: No Small Gift, 110 pages. Poetry

Longest book: The Golden Notebook, 640 pages

Longest Audiobook: Wolf Hall (and the only series book?)  24+ hours

I took advantage of Audible’s monthly freebies quite often.

Highlights:

I completed the Classics Club 50 in 5 years!!!!!  

I also completed – for the VERY FIRST TIME – the Back to the Classics Challenge at the 9 book level.

I already mentioned my Milkman twice + Say Nothing “Reading Experience”. Wonderful. 

A renewed focus to blog and write reviews. Lots of Business/Leadership books = 5.  Three books with the word GOLDEN in it. Another year of no readalongs. And no Stephen King. Anyone up for The Green Mile in 2020?

I did a fair job of reading books for the March Tournament of Books – always a wonderful time of year. 

My top favorites to share are:

Finally, PIE.

and, drumroll please for the 2019 Pie in Literature Award, the WINNER of my best book with pie is  The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J.Ryan Stradal!

Edith would just as soon take another woman’s husband as another woman’s pie recipe, and she had the best husband in the world, so there you go.

 

Honorable Mentions: Where the Crawdads Sing for a boat named The Cherry Pie, and The Psychology of Time Travel for frozen butter pies on a stick.

Which reminds me, I read a few time travel books this year, too.

 

One more thing:

I read 8 books in 2018 that were on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die: The Accidental, Candide, A Clockwork Orange, The Woodlanders, Naked Lunch, The House of the Seven Gables, A Handful Dust, Love in a Cold Climate

Happy New Year! Read and enjoy a slice of pie – in real life or in a book.

Diana frowned. “We told you, we don’t want cake, we want pie.”

Review 2018

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Review 2018

I read 76 books. Though I’m not sure that some are even “books” — a few were Audible Originals so a print version might not be available. And I count my DNFs.

     Here we go!

Total pages ~16042.

Female/Male:  54/22

Fiction/Non: 54/22 (well, isn’t THAT interesting?!)

New to Me Authors: 63        Repeat Authors: 13

Classics: 10 (See previous post.)

Audiobooks: 28, ~255 hours

Shortest book: A graphic novel,  Adam and Andy by James Asal. I gave it 5 slices of pie!

Longest book: Vanity Fair by Wm Makepeace Thackeray, 32 hours and 18 minutes.

I gave more 5 slice pie ratings than last year and 4 and 5 slicers comprised over 70% of my reads! Not bad.

Audiobooks dominate!

Highlights:

I finished a series! The Broken Earth Series by NK Jemisin. Highlighly recommended.

I didn’t do any readalongs? Huh. I didn’t read any Stephen King?! Wow. I did finally read a book by Tracy Kidder, one of my favorite nonfiction writers. I read two books written by friends.

I did a fair job of reading books for the March Tournament of Books – always a wonderful time of year. I’m not doing so hot this year. I’ve read one and about 1/3 into another one. 

My top favorites to share are:

Jane Eyre,  narrated by Thandie Newton. Beyond fabulous! 

Circe  by Madeline Miller

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine –  participated in one of the best book club discussions I’ve ever experienced! Very fun.

Anthony Marra’s  A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – the book I’m telling everyone to read.

and PriestDaddy  by Patricia Lockwood, a book I think I want to reread but in print. It was one that stayed with me and still perplexes.

Finally, PIE.

and the WINNER of my best book with pie is  THE IDIOT by Elif Batuman!!!

Honorable Mentions:  Tin Man and Manhattan Beach

 

One more thing:

I read 4 books in 2018 that were on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die:

Happy New Year! Read and enjoy a slice of pie – in real life or in a book.

 

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

A Classic Woulda Coulda Shoulda

This is a 2018 Year End Summary (Sub)Post to provide a record of update on my Classics Club 50 (CC50) but also to bemoan the fact that I never actually entered the Back to the Classics 2018 Challenge. And wouldn’t ya know it?! Yep, I could have met it. I actually achieved 8 of the categories by reading only 10 books that count as classics! LOL

My list:

• By Our Beginnings by Jean Stubbs 1972 – a new to me  woman author
• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 1932 – CC50, a new to me woman author
• The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy 1958 – CC50, another new to me author and satisfies the COLOR category as well as a woman author
• Emma by Austen 1815 – satisfies the REREAD category and a single word title plus a woman author
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte 1847 – 19th Century classic, a woman author
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather 1912 – a 20th Century classic, and a woman author
• Stoner by John Williams 1965 – CC50, single word title
• Vanity Fair – Thackeray 1848 – CC50 and I possibly could fight that it is a travel classic or even maybe a crime classic?  yea, maybe not.
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 1966 – CC50 and a classic that scared me. and OH YEA– woman author
• A Wizard of EarthSea by Ursula K LeGuin 1968 – a new to me woman author and totally a children’s classic

I am just shaking my head. I usually NEVER hit enough categories to fulfill the Back to Classics Challenge and so I didn’t enter it for 2018. Go figure.

On the other hand, I am only 3 classics away from having read 50 in 5 years. I have to the end of 2019. Now, don’t get too excited because I have to read 24 from my CC50 list to make it but I never committed to that…   woo hoo!

Next up is my recap post with pie charts.  Enjoy this photo of a pie:

Copyright © 2007-2018. Care’s Books and Pie aka Cares’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

and the 2017 Pie in Literature Award goes to…

OR….

More Year End Book Analysis Fun … and No Whining This Time

I have decided 86 is the number of books I read last year. This includes DNFs, skimmed, and samples. Goodreads says I read 91 and I am not going to dig into it to figure out the difference. And this isn’t a whine, it’s just the way it is. This will be a long rambling post; enjoy or skip, I understand…

Same as last year! 

Total pages read is under dispute. Goodreads says 26,600.

I listened to 13 audiobooks. ~191 hours.

I had 16 five star reads and they are all so different — I enjoyed the experiences for different reasons. 
Run, Home, The Grand Sophy, Code Name Verity, The 4 and 20 Blackbirds Pie Book, The Bone Clocks, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, Just Mercy, Lap Girl, The Nix, Mister Monkey, Black Wave, Lincoln in the Bardo, So Much Blue, Anything is Possible, Born a Crime. I refuse to rank them and choose favorites but I will  endorse a TOP TWO as recommendations. These two were the shiniest of the shiny:

  TOP AUDIOBOOK EXPERIENCE.

TOP OVERALL ENJOYABLE FICTION 

The other books that I gave 4 slices to yet now looking back I wonder why and so I now want to shout out some love to are:

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead. You will never again board an elevator and not think of this nutty little jewel. I liked it more than The Underground Railroad but that is probably because it is not as heavy…

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin – wow! A series I’m eager to continue…

Lila. It’s Marilynn Robinson. Duh. I think I should have read the print version, though.

Petty:The Biography by Warren Zanes – oh. RIP, Tom. You wrote some great songs. Thank you. (and I was very impressed with the writing. I’m a new fan of Zanes.)

Mr. Splitfoot – quirky! Loved it.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Not sure why I didn’t give this one five slices originally. It deserves all its accolades and I recommend everyone read it. Gonna be a movie!

 

The longest title: On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon. The shortest title would be Z (leave off the stuff after the ‘:’) The longest book I read was NOS4A2 by Joe Hill at 742 pages. The longest audiobook was The Sport of Kings at ~23 hours.

I read 48 books by women, 38 written by men.

Repeated authors:  Ann Patchett, David Mitchell, Stephen King, Marilynne Robinson, Kate Atkinson, Colson Whitehead.

Translated books:  Sudden Death by Alvara Enrigue, A Man Called Ove by Fred Backman, The Little Paris Bookshop, Wake in Winter by Ndezha Belenkaya.

DNFs included two of the above…

Books I read that I now need to see the movie:  Blindness, Mr. Mercedes, A Man Called Ove, A Long Way Home 

Books I read because I saw the movie:  The Hunter was the source story for Payback. 

Challenges I successfully met:  The What’s in a Name Challenge and the Tournament of Books. I had THE BEST time with the TOB and must say I am ridiculously proud that I read EVERY BOOK on the SHORT LIST!

Challenges that bested me:  Classics Club and the 2017 Classics Challenge.

I can’t find my list tracking the 1001+ books to read before I die but I don’t think I hit many. I just didn’t read many old books; mostly read recently published. Perhaps Home by Marilynne Robinson? Orlando?

By decade:
2018 – 1
2017 – 10
2016 – 24
2010-2015 – 27
2000-2009 – 10
1990-99 – 7
1980-89 – 2
1970-79 – 2
1960-69 – 1
1950-59 – 2
1920-29 – 1

(whoa – no books from the 19th century. I told you I failed the classics challenge last year! I will blame the TOB on that and my new obsession to read books that might be TOB, though track record disputes this, methinks.)

The only readalongs I participated in were both  David Mitchell books:  The Bone Clocks and Slade House (which I read for RIP.)

I want to give David Mitchell my Pie in Literature Award but I can’t. His tweet was ever so squee worthy but it wasn’t IN A BOOK.

So the WINNER of the 2017 Care’s Books and Pie blog’s “PIE IN LITERATURE” Award goes to!

drum roll…

WHAT ALICE FORGOT  by Liane Moriarty for the community bake off of the  giant lemon meringue pie!

“She dreamed of a giant rolling pin.”

“Custody battle. It sounded like custardy battle.”

 

Cheers! Til this time again next year. I’m sure there will be whining… Have a great 2018 of reading experiences!!

 

Copyright © 2007-2018. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Year End Summary… In Progress

Thoughts

Hello.

I do not understand why goodreads says I read 91 books when I can only count 86. Or 87. Goodreads counted the audio and print as two separate books for Orlando. OK, I’ll go with that, I guess¹.

But then I feel like a cheat.

And a fraud.

But I don’t have time for this!²  So let’s just go with 90 as a round up.  (I stopped updating my google doc of my crazy book tracking spreadsheet back at book #37 in May)

Goodreads says I gave 16 books 5 stars, 41 books got 4, 28 got 3 and 4 got 2. I actually awarded one book a 1 star.

Pie chart! 

I balanced the formats of how I digest a book:  Tradeback won with 25 and electronic (Kindle) books were at 23. I enjoyed 19 Audiobooks which seems to justify my purchasing the one book a month from Audible… I read 3 paperbacks and enjoyed 17 hardcovers – mostly from the library, but I don’t have that data easily pie-chartable.

Do know that some of these counts include books that I both read in print AND listened to via audiobook format. Just sayin’.

Genre is another thing I have a tough time tracking. But I do love the variety of books I read – I read books all over the sprectrum and yet I know I miss a few things, too. I didn’t read any graphic novels. I read some sci-fi but only if it was a part of the TOB. We’ll save the TOB for another post. For now, let’s just put up the pie charts!

Fiction 66, nonfiction 20.

I did this better last year, but I didn’t have a job (I did but I had a long Christmas break then) and I also had a computer that was faster and less annoying and I also knew where my last year’s paperwork was. #whining (#ugh). ALSO, I had time ALONE. You wouldn’t believe how many times my husband has asked me “What ARE you doing?!”)

PIE. Are you here for the pie?!  I also don’t have a quick hit report to run to find these numbers, either. I am accessing the PIE category on goodreads for books read in 2017 and using that count. (Actually, I didn’t…) My OCD tendencies want to verify this count with every post (but I didn’t DO reviews the second half of the year so raspberries to that) and … oh, you get the picture. Do tell me again that there is no book-blog-police checking the accuracy of my work. Also, you now see why I’m not an accountant…

We could well say this blogging/reading year was a first-half-of-the-year compared to the second-half. Lots happened in June that give us a clear definitive line of habits and processes. Shrug, OK. whatever. I’m still adjusting to be honest, but do know that reading will always be a constant. It just evolves, yes?

Of the posts/books that I kept the pie/no-pie data check going, I found 34 that mentioned pie.

Finally, here is my happiest pie memory from 2017 – it happened during the readalong for The Bone Clocks.  Just click and read my post I wrote during the Twitter exchange.

Happy New Year!  more stats fun to happen soon….

 

 

 

 

1 – I couldn’t get into Orlando. The audio was hard. The print version was overwhelming. I know it is probably most-awesome but I wasn’t in the right space at the time…

2 – whine whine whine. My word for the year coming up! (“Reset”)

Copyright © 2007-2017. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Pie Charts Tables Stats Words, Part 2 2016

By the Numbers…

Total Books Read = 86
Average Books Read Per Month = 7.17
Best Reading Month = May (10) and December (11)
Worst Reading Month = July (4 books – I was in RI; yea I don’t get it, either.)
Total Pages Read = 22,262
Average Pages/Book = 327.4
Average Pages/Day = 61
Average Pages/Week = 428
Total Chunksters (450+ pages) = 9 (incl 2 Audios > 19.3 hours)

Audiobooks:  Count 19, 254.5 Hours (3 of these I read/listened)
Average Hours/Book: 13 hours

(Memoir count is a part of the Nonfiction count…)

Everything and anything I can’t clearly genre-fy, I put in “Contemporary Lit” which, going forward, will be called Adult Fiction. That ‘Other’ category is comprised of ODD, romance, medical fiction (or did I throw these into Adult?), SciFi, children’s, travel, education, reference, history…  And when they are multi-categories, the whole thing collapses! ha.

Oldest book:	Germinal	131 years
Longest book:	The Fireman	768 pages
Shortest book:	Melinda McPickle
Longest book title:	Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
Shortest book title:	Oreo
DNFs:	3
Debuts:	11
Book to Movie:	1	The Painted Veil
Favorite reading experience:	The Tournament of Books March 2016

And finally… What you’ve all been waiting for!  How many books had PIE?

Apple 8, Blueberry 2, Banana Cream 2, Rhubarb 2, Bean Pie 2, Pastry Dough 2, , and Steak & Kidney 2;
Gooseberry, Dewberry, Peach – 1
Fried Green Tomato, Chocolate Chess, Mince Pie and Turkey Pot Pie – 1
Magpies, Moon Pie, Mud Pie, Easy as Pie, Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie, Pie Charts
and more!

 

OK, I’m done. Only a favorites list to do yet and goals for 2017… Bizzy Bizzy

Copyright © 2007-2017. Care’s Books and Pie aka Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Pie Charts Tables Stats Words, Part 1 2016

The “IN WORDS” Recap

Books I was excited about and thought I was going to love more: Quiet, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, Murder Must Advertise, The Devil in the White City, The Abstinence Teacher.

Most surprising book: The Tsar of Love and Techno. LOVED. And the audio narration was not great so I switched to print and am SO GLAD. So very glad. Also, Germinal, State of Wonder, and I Capture the Castle.

Book I pushed the most people to read: Probably The Painted Veil. Perhaps I Capture the Castle – talked my book club into reading it! Crossing to Safety made the rounds at the marina this summer. Am now recommending Homegoing. (READ IT.)

Diversity: I am humbled by what I’ve read to expand the world I know:  some James Baldwin, Paul Beatty’s Man Booker Award and TOB Rooster winner The Sellout (OMG – must read! want to read again), Pulitzer for Fiction winner The Sympathizer, authors: Turner, Rankin, Robinson, Woodson, Gyasi, Bennett. It continues.

Translated works:  3 – Han King’s The Vegetarian from Korean by Deborah Smith, Whatever by Houllebecq’s French by Paul Hammond, Germinal written by Zola and translated from French by Roger Pearson.

I read EIGHT books from the list of 1001+ Books to Read Before I Die. I read 8 last year, too.

Readalongs:  Last year at this post time, I reiterated my interest in reading Germinal and so we did in September – we had a great time! I also bullied my way into a buddy-along for Amsterdam and The Fireman was our almost King-along for 2016. Andi and I ended up reading The Painted Veil (“riggle in amidst the heart strings”) and then right after I tried to read A Little Life with a few bloggers who were also reading it (but I think it fizzled.) Ti of Book Chatter and I read the really strange The New Worlds. Just so you know – The Bone Clocks is happening NOW, The Green Mile postponed indefinitely (but still entertaining the idea), a Trollope of some sort is upcoming and… I’m sure I’ll get wrapped into something else. That Green Mile one will likely happen, I’m sure of it.

The Fireman was a win. Germinal was EXCELLENT. Good times…

HERE IS WHERE I THANK ALL OF YOU READERS AND READALONG PARTICIPANTS AND CHEERLEADERS AND COMMENTERS OF MY BLOG! YOU ROCK!  SMOOCHES AND KISSES AND HUGS {{{XOXOXO}}}

If I convinced you to read something and you loved it, YAY!!!  and if you convinced me to read something, THANK YOU.

Most Read Author:  Barbara Claypole White – a new friend; I’m a big fan. I read her ENTIRE oeuvre… Last year it was Rachel Joyce.

Fifty-eight authors were NEW to me. Of the others, 11 were a third (or more, but 3 was majority) time to sample. I read (possibly reread) an Agatha Christie; I read a ton of her stuff years ago. I reread To Kill a Mockinbird – and could have counted it as my reread of a HS classic but decided to use it in the BANNED BOOK category slot instead.

I fell in love with Ann Patchett, Anthony Marra, Wallace Stegner, and apparently Barbara Claypole White. (She’s adorable and spunky and lives in NC.)

I ended up reading three books by Ann Patchett in 2016:  Happy Marriage, State of Wonder, Commonwealth.

Challenges: I continue to rock out on my Classics Club 50, finishing year 2 of 5 very strong. I completed 9 of the 12 in the Back to the Classics Challenge and am happy with it. I completed the What’s in a Name and will continue with all of these in 2017. I am adding the Poetry Challenge.

Debuts: I did a crappy job of keeping track of this. I can say that I enjoyed new fiction by Angela Flournoy, Brit Bennett, Yaa Gyasi, and Scott Hawkins.

Raspberries to my efforts to watch and report on Books to Movie. I did enjoy The Painted Veil and recommend it highly – book and film. I did manage to watch The Book Thief and thought it well done.

Pie Mentions: Lots! I failed to track [snow day! guess what I’ve been doing!!] in my spreadsheet by book title (nor very accurately or collectably in goodreads) but only recorded in my reviews. Which means I need to go through all of these reviews [now done!] to see which books or how many mention pie. Maybe. Maybe I will do that or only vow to do better going forward.  ==>  57% of the books I read this year mention pie.

Crossing to Safety wins the PIE IN LITERATURE Award:

“When you’re nailing a custard pie to the wall, and it starts to wilt, it doesn’t do any good to hammer in more nails.”

If I were to guess, apple pie was mentioned more than any other kind of pie. I love Barbara Claypole White for the many pies she mentions, especially Orange-Rhubarb. Fate and Furies had some terrific pie mentions. Bennett’s The Mothers had a great pie scene and Germinal had more pie mentions than one might expect.

Unintended Themes in my Readings:  I didn’t / can’t identify anything. Other than maybe my obsession with the Tournament of Books?  [Updated now that I’ve looked at EVERY book review post.] I had more than a few books with thought-provoking looks at the concept of death and dying. I might want to consider that I read more than a few odd or quirky books this year, too.

Interesting aka Odd Tidbit:  I didn’t read ANYTHING by Stephen King. I did read a book by his son Joe Hill though, and had a very funny exchange with my Auntie when I gave her my copy of The Fireman. My Auntie lives in Maine – this might be important or give credence to this situation. Auntie did not realize that the author of The Fireman was the son of King. I didn’t think to tell her! She accused me of holding out and NOT telling her. It amused me… I’m still rather shocked that I didn’t get any King read in 2016.

Copyright © 2007-2017. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.