Reading Year In Review 2020

Well, that wasn't very much fun. I think most of us are ready to put 2020 firmly in the rearview mirror and move forward into 2021 hoping for better.  Dear Lord, please be better.  2020 was a challenging year for many of you, for a variety of big and small reasons, and I'm no different.  My reading challenge every year is always to get through 100 books. I'm a slow reader by Romancelandia and blogging standards - so hitting 100 books is a pretty big deal for me. Yeah, 2020 saw me getting through 74.  Not great, especially when you consider I count DNFs, novellas, audiobooks - I count everything y'all, my challenge my rules. Here's how the number broke down:

5 Stars (A grade): 4
4 Stars (B grade): 21
3 Stars (C grade ; low B-): 28
2 Stars (D grade): 11
1 Star (F grade): 3
DNF (Did Not Finish): 7
Audiobooks: 13

These numbers are all in my usual ballpark, but 2020 saw more 3-Star reads than 4-Star reads and I always find that depressing.  Here's hoping that ship gets righted for 2021.  

Now, on to the fun part - the actual books. As a reminder, and for those of you new here, my "best of year" list is the best books I READ during said year. It's not specific to books published in that year.  There's older titles featured - mainly because I am always perpetually behind in my reading.  Now, on to the books:

The Romance (in no particular order):

The Lady's Companion by Carla Kelly (Traditional Regency, 1996) - This was my best romance read of the year and the fact it was published in 1996 isn't exactly lost on me. Gentry spinster heroine whose Daddy has ruined them financially decides to take her destiny in her own hands and accepts a job as a lady's companion to a cantankerous widow. She finds an ally and friend in the widow's bailiff. Compelling conflict, emotionally gut-wrenching, and tightly plotted. It's amazing, it's available digitally. Just read it.

To Dream Again by Laura Lee Guhrke (Historical romance, 1995) - This was a reread for me and the title link will take you to my original blog review from 2005. Second son comes home to England with the dream of making children's toys and buys the heroine's factory after the bank calls in her loan after her husband dies. Never mind she's the one keeping the business afloat while her husband chased one get rich quick scheme after another. A prickly heroine written in a time when those weren't the norm who is all out of f*cks when it comes to men. That said, parts of the story have not aged well which I detail a more in my GoodReads review. At one point the self-published digital edition was widely available but at the time of this post it's available via Kindle Unlimited.

Slow Dance with the Best Man by Sophie Pembroke (Harlequin Romance, 2017) - The Harlequin Romance line is one of my favorites because the books feel like warm hugs. Typecast Hollywood actor falls for the heroine, who is gunning for a managerial position at her hometown's Gothic manor that's been converted to a posh hotel. A fluffy concoction with the pleasing Hollywood star falls for A Nobody fantasy. I'm glad I have more Pembroke in my TBR.

Redemption of the Maverick Millionaire by Michelle Douglas (Harlequin Romance, 2020) - A hero who did the heroine dirty swoops into her adopted hometown looking to make amends, only to end up making a muck of things.  Basically this book is one long grovel, because boy howdy did the hero screw up.  Also, it's a small town romance where the author doesn't completely sweep the challenges of small town living under the rug.

Cinderella Unmasked by Susannah Erwin (Harlequin Desire, 2020) - Erwin wrote a book featuring a hero running for political office and I ended up really enjoying it. That's some kind of miracle for 2020. Heroine whose family was done wrong by hero's family ends up falling head over feet. A smitten hero in pursuit who is genuinely a nice guy (not a brooding, angsty playboy!), compelling family conflict, and a Cinderella trope that avoids heavy-handed rescue fantasy. After just two books Erwin is my newest autobuy.

Not Romance, Still Great (in no particular order):

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Nonfiction, 2018) - I read this based off Miss Bates' recommendation and this was easily the book of the year for me. At the end of 1972, Jean McConville, mother of 10, was dragged from her Northern Ireland home by the IRA, never to be seen again. It's a story of violence, of politics, where there are no heroes, and it was by far the most riveting book I had read in a dog's age. I cannot recommend it enough. I made all the incoherent great book noises during and after I finished it.

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright (Nonfiction, 2017) - I've got Sasha Devlin to thank for this recommendation and this was a great listen on audio. Kind of weird to read a book about plagues that was written pre-COVID, and frustrating in that humans have this uncanny knack for repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Engaging, written with the layperson in mind, with a touch of gallows' humor. I really enjoyed this and even learned some stuff.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (Dystopian, 2020) - A dystopian western that's queer and feminist AF.  Fleeing an arranged marriage when her best friend (and lover) is murdered, the heroine hooks up with a subversive band of traveling librarians. It's a slim book (category romance length) so the world building isn't terribly intricate, but I loved the feminist themes of the story and got sucked into the western world like whoa.  Not a typical read for yours truly, and one that I'm hoping will become a series.

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park (Historical children's fiction, 2020) - After her mother dies, 14-year-old half-Chinese heroine moves with her white father to the Dakota territory. The author grew up loving the Little House series, while recognizing all the inherent problems with that series.  There are a lot of heavy themes in this story (racism, injustice, and the heroine is assaulted at one point - not raped) but it never feels like a heavy book. It's hopeful, with a lovely sense of place and history.  

When I started thinking about this blog post my impression was that I had a pretty dire reading year - but as I looked back I realized that there were gems - it's just said gems were buried in between mediocrity and books I'd rather forget. So long 2020. Please do let the door smack you on the way out.

Library Loot Reviews: Representation and Collectors

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all of one's library holds will come in at once.  At least this time around it was only two books and both were very quick reads.

For long time readers of this blog, my youngest niece, Lemon Drop, turned 10 this past spring. I'm the Aunt that always gifts her books and she's not as precocious as my oldest niece who told me at 8 years old that she "likes to pick out my own books Aunt Wendy." I happily bought her gift cards, but it ain't the same.  When I asked my sister what Lemon Drop was currently reading, thinking I'd get her "the next book in whatever series about a girl and her dog, horse, unicorn, cat, whatever" I discovered Lemon Drop wanted westerns.  Yes, my heart skipped a beat (this being me after all) but y'all - it's hard to find westerns for grown-ups who love them (um, me) let alone 10-year-old kids.  Luckily one of my librarians swooped in to rescue me with a recommendation of Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park. My sister and niece read it together, loved it, so of course I then wanted to read it.

Park grew up in the Midwest loving the Little House series, to the point of fan-fiction devotion. However she wasn't immune to the problematic elements of the series and she fulfills a lifelong dream of telling the story of a half-Chinese 14-year-old girl who, after the death of her mother in Los Angeles, is uprooted by her white father to resettle in the Dakota territory.  Hanna has dreams of graduating from school and becoming a seamstress in her father's new shop. Along the way she's confronted by ugly realities, the struggle to make friends, and the unpacking of her grief surrounding her beloved mother's death.

While the protagonist is a 14-year-old girl, this is very much written at a middle-grade level. Suitable for my niece who just finished the fourth grade.  However, as much as I hate the term "adult themes" since kids are more observant and smarter than most of us give them credit for - it's the kind of book that I think warrants some unpacking.  Hanna confronts racism, injustice, and there's a moment at the end where she's assaulted (not raped - but hands are laid on her by a drunken ass). My one tangible issue with this story is actually that assault. Park writes about the aftermath of it realistically, and I do think children need to be aware of unfair realities - but it's a difficult lesson with a message that the genre reader in me recoils against.  In other words - talk to your kids y'all.

A quick read for an adult reader, a lovely sense of place, and a beautiful example that representation matters.  And while the themes are mature, the story is neither dark nor grim.  Even if you're not interested - pick it up the next time you're in a library or bookstore to read the author's note at the end.

Final Grade = B+

My Mom told me about Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books by Nina Freudenberger having read about it in the newspaper.  One of the local libraries I have access to had it in eBook, which is not normally how I like to look at what is basically a coffee table book - but what the heck?  I have a tablet.

It's important to know that Fruedenberger is an interior designer, so this book approaches books as functional art, part of the interviewee homes that are used and not mere display pieces.  These aren't mere collectors per se, they're people who use and love their book collections.  While the books are displayed (sometimes haphazardly) they're used, they're thumbed through, in some cases cherished or purged depending on the person who owns them.

Freudenberger definitely chose her subjects among artists and literati - the only "every man" writer to make an appearance being Larry McMurtry (and calling him genre is a stretch IMHO).  But the photographs are lovely, as are some of the sentiments, and it helps solidifies my own relationship with books.  Which is to say the older I get, the more I don't view books as art.  I'm more of a collector of stories. It's just that my preferred method for consuming stories is through the written word. Are there beautiful books? Are there books that are art either by written word or in presentation?  Of course. And while I appreciate those, in the end it's not what draws me.  The story is the thing. That's the art that speaks to me.  Delivered via a beautifully bound first edition or as an eBook file. In the end it's never no mind to me.  Although I will admit to wanting what I call "tangible" copies of my keepers - books that I can pull out, look at, casually flip through.  Yes, I'm a librarian, but that's about as high-falutin' as I get.  The Midwestern lack of pretension runs that freely through my veins.

Take the grade for what's it worth.  It was a nice book to look through but it's a coffee table book and those "are what they are."  Final Grade = C