Three Interesting Things

1. Reading While White had a fascinating interview with Laura M. Jimenez about her work reviewing graphic novels. 

2. This story of a biracial woman pondering her right to wear a kimono was amazing. 

3. Toys are washing up on the shore of a German island. 

2016 Reading Tally

Total Number: 171*.  12 of those were novellas. Falling in the middle again.  Other year tallies have been higher and lower. 

I read 123 different authors**. 65 of those were new to me. Technically Maisey Yates and Patricia Briggs tied as the author I read the most, with 7, but all but one of the Briggs was a re-read, so that honor goes again to Yates. (Prolific authors for the win.) Next highest was Zoraida Cordova who had two series for me to work on and the start to another.  

I have seen discussion that diverse books should primarily be counted if they are own voices, or at least by authors of color, and I totally understand that thinking. However it requires me to know a lot about an author and I don't always, and in some cases an author may choose to not share their full identity online.  All of this is to say, I'm counting by characters again. I had 62 this year, and some of them were even intersectional, as in characters of color who were also bisexual, and/or neuro-diverse, and/or having a mental illness.

99 were part of a series***. 

The oldest book was from 1822 (a reread for book club of L. M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon).  Next oldest was from 2004.  63 were from 2015. Two of them had been lingering in the TBR since 2011. September was the banner reading month with 21 (some of which were rereads). Romance was the highest read category with 88. YA was next highest with 52. 

I read 14 paper books and 15 audio, everything else was ebook. 

And some faves from the 2016 haul are: 

Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood was a wonderful story of two men who met and fell in love due to a flood. 

Katie McGarry's Chasing Impossible, as many of her books do, broke my heart and then patched it back together.  Some teens don't know if they deserve happiness. Abby and Logan are two of them. 

Jason Reynolds' Boy in the Black Suit was a touching story of processing grief when the person left in charge of you is doing worse than you are. 

Jaye Robin Brown's Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit is a story that looked at big city vs. small town approaches to sexuality, and religion, and figuring out new families and had me so worried it was going to do something cliche and didn't.  

Robin Talley's What We Left Behind captured so much of the angst and growth that comes with that first year of college that I had flashbacks reading it. 

Tracey Livesay's Love on My Mind was a story that took the tropes of heroine must engineer a meeting with hero for a job promotion and then oops, falls in love with him and managed to ground it and make me worry and root for them. 

Amber Belldene's Not a Mistake is a story of a seminarial ethics professor and the newly graduated minister who discover their one night stand has long term consequences. 

L.A. Witt's Running With Scissors is the story of a musician who bailed on his band before they got signed after he torched his relationship with the lead singer getting a second shot if only he can keep his hands off the new drummer. 

M. L. Buchman's Target Engaged was a great story about two elite military folks that does a thing that I cannot talk about without spoilers, but I cheered.  I literally cheered.  So if military romance is your jam, you might want to try this. 

Sarah Kuhn's Heroine Complex ended up being one of four superhero stories I read this year (unusually high for me).  I adored the exploding cupcakes, and found it the perfect airplane entertainment. 

Kaia Danielle's Calling Her Bluff I found through a twitter call and oh my, if the story of a gambling addict turned romance author who has to attend a reader convention in Vegas and the hot guy assigned to keep her straight speaks to you, then I recommend you grab this. 

*I counted re-reads if I re-read the whole thing a didn't just skip to my favorite parts. 

**I counted authors, not pen names, where possible.  I counted anthologies as one author, because it was just too unwieldy otherwise. 
***Series is based on the book being part of a series, whether or not I read any others.  

2015 Reading Tally

I realized when I was gathering up the 2016 numbers, that I failed to post the 2015 numbers, so here they are. 

Total Number: 147*.  2 of those were novellas**. Falling in the middle again.  Other year tallies have been higher and lower. 

I read 114 different authors***. 57 of those were new to me. Jill Shalvis and Maisey Yates tied as authors I read the most at 5 each. 

I tracked books with diverse characters, ie characters of color, with neurodiversity, and/or differently abled again.  I read 57 of those this year, and it is just coincidence that that's the same number of new to me authors, although certainly there was some overlap. 

60 were part of a series****. 

The oldest book was from 2003.  65 of them were from 2014. At least one had been lingering in the TBR since 2007. May was the banner reading month with 21, with November close behind at 20. YA highest read category with 60. Romance was next highest with 54. 

I read 22 paper books and 14 audio, everything else was ebook. 

And some faves from the 2015 reads are: 

Marjorie M. Liu's Monstress which was delightful and beautiful.  (You know for a dark story about a world filled with evils.)

Shannon Hale's Dangerous was a fascinating tale of teens chosen for a space camp and then drawn into a large conspiracy. 

Sherry Thomas's The One in My Heart was a contemporary (unusual for Thomas) that was both heartbreaking and heartwarming.  Two people, loosely connected, who hook up, and then for various reason decide to fake engagement while trying to remain unattached. 

Dahlia Adler's Under The Lights was a fun peek behind the scenes at Hollywood as well as a realistic portrayal of the challenges of having friends who have different opportunities and roadblocks than you. 

Katherine Locke's Second Position starts in a DC coffee shop which is where I (metaphorically) cracked it open.  The story of reunited lovers gripped me. 

Kat Yeh's The Truth About Twinkie Pie caught my eye, even though I tend not to read much middle grade, and it was just as cute as the title suggests. A tween and her big sister move to a new place after winning prize money so that she can go to a better school.  Adjustment to the new place and new circumstances has some bumps and reveals some family secrets. 

Sarina Bowen's The Year We Fell Down about two injured college students who get adjacent rooms and, well, discover some chemistry, was great. 

Kasie West's Pivot Point operates on kind of a "Sliding Doors" principle, in which a teen stretches her ability to foresee the results of two options when her parents split up. 

Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary made use of a shifting timeline to explore what happens when a teen gets a fatal cancer diagnosis, and then miraculously survives it.  

Alaya Dawn Johnson's Love is the Drug blew me away.  It was the tale of a DC teen navigating a pandemic and the equally tricky politics of a fancy DC prep school.  I listened to it in library audio and then got myself an e-copy so I could re-read at will. 

*I counted re-reads if I re-read the whole thing a didn't just skip to my favorite parts.  
**My rule has been that things I can buy separately count as a book, so a book that was released with three novellas, or a collection of short stories counts as one read.  With the rise of electronic publishing the number of novellas that are released all by their lonesome has gone up, but hey, if it was a separate payment (or borrowing) transaction, I'm counting it.  
***I counted authors, not pen names, where possible.  
****Series is based on the book being part of a series, whether or not I read any others.

Three Interesting Things

1. Sarah Jeong's piece about inadequate women's health care explains a major plot point in episode 3 of "Star Wars" was fascinating. 

2. Illinois has started training beauty professionals on how to recognize signs of domestic abuse. They are not required to report anything to law enforcement, the idea is just that this might be a space where a victim is alone and able to talk freely. 

3. And to return to the Star Wars universe, this post about a women who took her Mexican father to see "Rogue One" and their resulting chat about a movie where one of the heroes sounded like him is touching. 

Is Performance Acceptance?

My high school chorus performed as part of the Inaugural Opening Ceremonies during my tenure. The opening ceremonies is not the cool ceremonies like the Olympics, more the opening ceremonies for the inauguration are like the bit before the bit.  Which is to say, we were on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (never not cool) and there were Secret Service about, but mostly, we were part of the lead up to some lesser celebrities, while the big ones came and performed the following day.  I, and most of my high school, had not been of age to vote, and I confess the incoming President was not who I would have selected, but it didn't at the time feel like my singing some various patriotic songs meant anything more than I was participating in a process that happens every four years around here. 

I'm not suggesting that this isn't an unprecedented election, it is.  The hatefulness and outright bigotry certainly would change that calculus for me.  I was lucky in that my school was local enough that our travel costs were minimal.  A lot of groups look forward to such an honor and save up and fundraise quite a bit.  This article got passed around a bit - warning plays sound automatically - because it had a catchy headline, but the point I found most interesting was that on average groups need to raise about $200,000 to participate in any given inauguration, which is not something most schools can afford to do too often.  And even local schools are looking at additional staff time, plus the increased security around such events since, ahem, my time in school, makes it a large undertaking.  And when arts funding is getting slashed at most schools, it's even harder. 

I read about the choir member who quit the Mormon Tabernacle, and the discussions of other performers who felt coerced, and here's the thing.  I do not have an answer for anyone about whether performing is acceptance, but I think the thing that's been overlooked in a lot of this is the cost of travel, food, and time that anyone who chooses to perform is looking at.  This isn't like accepting a gig in Vegas where you'll be paid or get a part of the ticket monies, you're generally expected to be doing this for the honor.  So, anyone who has misgivings, I can't see why they would want to commit to travelling, just so they could perform outside in the cold and be part of something that will certainly do nothing to ease their concerns.  Inauguration ceremonies are often a little like conventions, for understandable reasons. It will be very rah, rah, patriotic, but nothing that has ever been said in an inauguration made people concerned about the future feel better. 

I know there's a group of people trying to say that the liberals and others who are concerned are just overreacting, and boy do I hope they're right.  Nothing that's happened yet has confirmed that for me though.  And honestly, does anyone remember that my high school performed at the opening ceremonies a few presidents ago? I think not.  So, then why would they want anyone there who didn't want to be there.