2022 had the most babies and the fewest books read, both in total, and off of my "to read" list for the year. This was predictable. I read 7/11 of my "to read" books, and 85 books/26k pages across the year. Nothing earlier than 1950, either, I think (though Goodreads gets this wrong if I… Read More
Tag: Bookshelf
My Favorite Books of 2022
This year began with a baby, had a move in the middle, and I'm now getting to discover what normal might look like in our new state. These were my favorite books I read over the course of the year, listed in roughly chronological order. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society… Read More
Books I Hope to Read in 2022
I wrapped up 2021 with 10/11 of the books on my reading list finished. (I had ambitions of at least starting to read Peace and Penance in Late Medieval Italy on December 31st, but instead I took a third trimester nap). I can live with that. Past my official list, I read 117 books in… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2021
I read in two homes, across a move. I read mostly library books, across three different states where I have borrowing privileges. I read very very little on planes, between covid and a toddler who spent most of a flight trying to steal my mask off my face. I read aloud, and I do a… Read More
Lyme and Literacy in Suffering
I got to read and review Ross Douthat's memoir of Lyme disease, The Deep Places for National Review. The book is thought-provoking and unsettling. It is as much about how to endure suffering as how to address medical mysteries. In some ways, Douthat’s striving for a cure is a transposition of the same meritocratic story… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2021
Last year, I had a baby... and finished all the books on my 2020 list! (With the caveat that my husband and I took up Cardinal Sarah's The Day is Now Far Spent as our shared Sunday readaloud book, so I get a pass since we're reading it slowly together). All in all, I read… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2020
These are my favorite books I read in 2020, listed in roughly chronological order. Nearly all of them were read as ebooks, many as library books, as I (initially) read with a sleeping newborn on my lap and (later) read standing up, ready to run to pluck our adventurous baby off the stairs. I rely… Read More
Recommending Playborhood
Philanthropy Daily is collecting reading suggestions for coronatide. I was obviously tempted to suggest The Ghost Map or Microbe Hunters, both of which I love. But I decided to go with something more focused on how we can gather again. We're still a long way from being able to gather, but, even after a vaccine, many streets will be… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2020
Technically, I did pretty well on my 2019 reading list, finishing nine of the eleven books on my list. It's just that it sounds a lot better if you didn't see the grocery bag of books I schlepped over Christmas break when I finished three of the books on my list during the Octave. Beyond… Read More
Your Roots Shall Make Ye Free
I reviewed Michael Brennan Dougherty's epistolary memoir, My Father Left Me Ireland, for The American Interest. Dougherty's rage is directed at the eunuchizing modern mindset that sees us as most free when we can be stripped of all the ties we have to others. A father can leave his children, provided the financial pain is assuaged by child support or governmental… Read More