It’s that time of year - the time when the entire internet tells us we’ve gotta evaluate our lives year and decide how much we sucked at it.
It feels like there are so many opportunities for comparison here. Did so-and-so read more books than me? If so, were they better, more erudite books? Did x person write more words? Were they better words?
I’m gonna try real hard not to play that game this year. Instead I’m going to take my accomplishments for what they are: accomplishments. I read books this year. I wrote—not as much as I wish I had, but enough. I’m going to practice self-compassion: it was a hard year for me, health-wise, plus I had a new baby.
The self-compassion bit is the important part, I think.
Books I read
Here is the list of books I read this year, in no particular order. I have bolded my absolute favorites.
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Midnight Disease by Alice Flaherty
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Friday I’m in Love by Camryn Garrett
The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Alias Emma by Ava Glass
Spare by Prince Harry
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maass
The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson
Because We Are Bad by Lily Bailey
North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan
Cribsheet by Emily Oster
Once More With Feeling by Ellissa Sussman
The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
Little Labors by Rivka Galchen
Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher
An Observant Wife by Naomi Ragen
Death Watch by Stona Fitch
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
You Should Have Told Me by Leah Konen
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen
Beholder by Ryan La Sala
In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien
The Last Word by Taylor Adams
Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams
One By One by Ruth Ware
Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Starling House by Alix E Harrow
The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell
The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Thank You For Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz
All The Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Salt in My Soul by Mallory Smith
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon
Spillover by David Quammen
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Color of Water by James McBride
These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
The Guest by Emma Cline
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Rouge by Mona Awad
Good Inside by Becky Kennedy
The Emotional Life of the Toddler by Alicia Lieberman
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
The Invisible World by Nora Fussner
The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs
On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni
The Great Mortality by John Kelly
Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin
The Undying by Anne Boyer
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz
From the Bullet to the Ballot by Jakobi Williams
The Great Influenza by John Barry
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
Rapture Ready by Daniel Radosh
Five Survive by Holly Jackson
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Every Minute is a Day by Robert Meyer and Dan Koeppel
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
In Shock by Rana Awdish
Complications by Atul Gawande
Better by Atul Gawande
Second Chances in New Port Stephen by TJ Alexander
Wow I really ended the year on a high note with all these medical memoirs, huh? I have book phases as often as the next person, I guess.
Some non-quantitative trends I noticed: a lot of nonfiction, especially historical and memoirs. More literary fiction than usual. More thrillers this year than romances, and more sci fi+horror than fantasy. My first year featuring parenting books (which makes sense!).
I also just counted them up and right now I’m sitting at exactly 100 books read for the year. I imagine it’ll be 3-4 books higher in the end, since it’s only December 5th as I write this. But still! Wow!
The main reason I read so many books in a year is that a) I read very quickly; and b) I can’t fall asleep if I don’t read first, so I have a minimum one hour of dedicated, mandatory reading time every night.
Books I’ve Written
This is probably gonna be the more disappointing section.
Finished draft of A Shot in the Dark. Yep. I didn’t even finish the book until the same year it came out. We kind of did a crash landing on publishing this book. It was supposed to be done the previous fall but then I had an abruptly early and traumatic end to my pregnancy, and then I had a newborn, so it didn’t get finished until the early months of 2023. Oh, well.
Developmental revisions on A Shot in the Dark. If I recall correctly, we did 3 or 4 rounds of this.
Line edits and copyedits on A Shot in the Dark.
Re-outlining The Girl That Time Forgot.
Outlining untitled adult romance 2.
Drafting untitled adult romance 2.
Drafting a secret book that I “cheated” on other books with. But only minimally, because I felt guilty about it.
Drafting secret screenplay.
The one thing I “learn” when I look back at the writing I’ve accomplished this year is how disconnected it all is. I didn’t finish anything (aside from ASITD, very early on). I just did a little work on a lot of things.
My goal for 2024 is to do a lot of work on one (or two) thing(s). As my grad school adviser used to say, I need to be a “closer.”
As for right now….
What I’m reading: What If? by Randall Munroe
What I’m listening to: all things boygenius
What I’m watching: Bodyguard on Netflix
What I’m playing: yet another runthrough of Skyrim
Where I’m traveling this holiday season: back to North Carolina to visit family and go to the Outer Banks.
I finished reading A Shot in the Dark yesterday, and it is absolutely one of my bolded books on my list this year (of a bit more than 100, but I don't have a new baby!). It's such a strong and sensitive book, and doesn't read like a crash landing at all (except emotionally).
100 books is awesome! I finished the rough draft of the book I started in Feb and am trying to plan & reoutline so I can hit revisions in the new year.