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